A few days ago I got a feed from EDIC, the malpractice insurance company, written by Katie Panikian, JD, Chief Risk Officer. It definitely surprised and frightened me. Many of my clients routinely text patients from their cell phones or from an employee cell phone about appointments, test results, and lots more. What the feed told me was how dangerous that was for the dental practice.
First, it can be a HIPPA violation and we all know how serious that can be.
Then, these items usually do not become part of the patient file in the office. These items must immediately be moved to the patient’s chart, preserving all time stamp information.
Also, patients may text urgent messages to the dentist and the dentist may not see these at all in a timely fashion.
In case of a malpractice suit, the dentist may totally lose the use of the cell phone used, possibly for an extended period, while the texts are examined and interpreted.
The article states that the practice should purchase a software application which will be HIPPA compliant, and be an encrypted platform. These same rules apply also for communications between dentists and their specialists used.
Take care of this today! Under the right circumstances, this could be pretty serious.
For more information see www.edic.com.