Communication Strategies and HIPPA

There has been a significant improvement in accessing health information through

technology especially the use of mobile device messaging. On the flip side, text messaging has

opened up another avenue through which PHI may be disclosed improperly. Some entities use

the permitted remote communication technologies to offer audio-only telehealth services so long

as those practices conform to the requirements of the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach

Notification Rule (Drolet et al., 2017).

My hospital employs email, text messages, or direct calling for personalized information

to the patients. The physicians caring for their patients use these tools as they are the main ones.

These tools offer confidentiality compared to social media sites. Physician mostly employs

emails when patients ask them question, and when they want to reschedule their appointment.

However, direct calls and SMSs are among the frequently utilized strategies for making patient

follow-ups. Unlike telephones, emails, and text messages improve the patient-physician

relationship. Besides, these resources are time savers in the follow-up. On the other hand, emails,

telephone calls, and text messages can be misused by patients as well and they may interfere

with the private life of a patient (American Medical Association, 2023). However, my

organization tackles the risk of potential misappropriation and/or invasion of a patient’s privacy

through having a strong Hippocratic Oath (HO). The policy sets several safeguards towards

ensuring that our patient’s medical records remain confidential at all costs.

Moreover, my organization has various social media channels, including a Facebook

page and Twitter handle, acknowledging the important role of social media networks in

increasing patient involvement. The firm also uses these social sites not only for marketing but

also to promote local health projects. Social media sites create a virtual community wherein
patients can feel close to the hospital at the time they want it as the patients stay in the hospital.

Through such social media sites, hospitals can also join in ongoing online conversations. In this

manner, the hospitals’ professionals and the patients remain busy. Finally, my hospital tends to

admit experts from various sections who enlighten those inpatients concerning issues like breast

cancer, diabetes, and healthy lifestyle.

The policy of my organization on HIPAA ensures that confidentiality and privacy are

maintained while talking between my organization and patients. This is done by categorizing it

into either confidential or non-confidential information. The hospital uses encrypted emails and

other similar forms of closed electronic channels to pass any information that they consider

sensitive or confidential (Office For Civil Rights (OFC), 2022). My organization does not require

patients to share with us their e-mail login passwords since it is a violation of the organization’s

HIPPA law regarding maintaining patient privacy. Additionally, my health care provider does

not disseminate sensitive personal information regarding their patients through public channels

such as social media sites since this leads to stigmatizing them by society. Besides, we

sometimes conduct bug checking on our electronic data messaging platforms such as phones to

make sure that people with ill motives do not get information from where the information is sent

to the patients. Therefore, these methods, all of them consistent with my institution’s HIPAA

policy, sustain privacy and confidentiality in patient-to-patient communication using electronic

means.

Thus, electronic communication, such as email or text messaging, can be a useful tool in

the practice of medicine and can facilitate communication within a patient-physician relationship

(American Medical Association, 2023). Nonetheless, some of these means can cause unique

worries about confidentiality as well as privacy when they are to talk about personalized data.
Just like when physicians meet with patients directly, they are bound by professional ethics of

medical practice while engaged in electronic communication. Any method of communication,

whether it is virtual, telephonic, or in-person, should appropriately address the patient’s clinical

needs as well as the data’s context.

References

American Medical Association. (2023). Electronic Communication with Patients | AMA-Code.

Retrieved November 20, 2023, from https://code-medical-ethics.ama-assn.org/ethics-

opinions/electronic-communication-patients

Drolet, B. C., Marwaha, J. S., Hyatt, B. T., Blazar, P. E., & Lifchez, S. D. (2017). Electronic

communication of protected health information: privacy, security, and HIPAA

compliance. The Journal of Hand Surgery, 42(6), 411–

416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhsa.2017.03.023

Office For Civil Rights (OFC). (2022, June 10). Guidance on how the HIPAA rules permit

covered health care providers and health plans to use remote communication

technologies for Audio-Only Telehealth. HHS.gov. Retrieved November 20, 2023,

from https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/hipaa-audio-

telehealth/index.html