Communicating with your Health Care Provider via E-mail:
A Review of Issues and Cautions for Patients
By: Peter J. Embi, MD, MS
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Using E-mail to Communicate with your Health Care Provider |
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Introduction
Using E-mail to Communicate with your Health Care Provider
Conclusion & Links
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Checklist: What to Consider Before Using E-mail
- __ Is your health care provider even interested in/prepared to safely and effectively correspond using E-mail?
- __ Does your provider or health care system have established policies in place regarding the use of E-mail between you and them? Have you read them?
- __ If so, who will read the E-mail you send to your health care provider? Just your provider or some other office staff as well?
- __ Is your provider equipped to use encrypted E-mail to send E-mail containing personal identifying information? Are you?
- What other security measures does your provider have in place to secure your E-mail correspondence?
- __ Do they use password protected screen savers?
- __ What about regular back-up of data?
- __ Will your provider use the address book feature when sending E-mail in order to avoid sending messages to the wrong E-mail account due to "typos".
- __ Will your messages be included as part of your medical record?
- __ Is there an established maximum turnaround time for getting a response from your provider? What is it? __ What about during weekends and holidays?
- __ Should you expect an automated reply when your message is received at your provider's E-mail account?
- __ Define up front with your provider what subject line headers should be used in order to facilitate appropriate filtering of messages through their system. (e.g., "prescription," "appointment," "medical advice," "billing question," "visit follow-up.")
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