Bringing Ehr To The Masses With Secure Messaging

Over the past few years, health care companies throughout the U.S

. have been scrambling to make the switch from medical records kept on paper over to EHR (electronic health records). Its not hard to see why. The federal government is heavily incentivizing companies that are able to complete this transition by their targeted deadline of 2014.

The promise of EHR is simple: It allows a patient's complete medical record to be accessed on demand. Electronically. Whenever and wherever it may be needed. Up-to-date patient data is seamlessly exchanged between nurse, hospital, primary care physician, out-of-network specialist, medical lab and insurance company. And as a result, efficiency improves, errors can be minimized and costs can be reduced.

Delivering on the promise, however, can be challenging. Confidential patient data must be exchanged securely. Email - the obvious choice for the sending and receiving of electronic documents - is not inherently secure enough to meet the privacy standards required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Many major hospitals are building their own secure networks to facilitate the exchange of electronic health records.

But what about smaller and independent health care professionals who don't have the resources of a major facility? How will a private practice, lab or insurance company make the secure connections - to hospitals or to one another - as required by law? One way to bridge the gap is through secure messaging solutions provided by internet fax.

Internet fax documents are sent and received as emails. But because they're transmitted using encrypted internet connections and point-to-point fax protocols, the sending of electronic health records via internet fax can meet the security standards required by HIPAA. And, of course, because there's no paper involved in this form of secure messaging, patient documents aren't piled on a fax machine subject to accidental or intentional view.

Health care providers who transition to EHR are also required to keep an audit trail showing when electronic patient records are viewed, and by whom. Top tier internet fax providers cover that too, offering detailed records of messaging activity. Messages can also be purged, if needed, to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley retention policies.

Finally, because internet fax is a service, there's no need to buy hardware or install software. All that's required is a computer or web-enabled mobile device and email. So it's a secure, affordable and convenient way for small and independent health care providers to participate in the EHR revolution, improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.

by: Dave Meister

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