In the modern setting, new technologies in communication have taken a central stage due to their costs and time efficiency. In the healthcare sector, text messaging is getting appreciated as a quick form of communication with patients and among care providers (Lauffenburger & Choudhry, 2016). Text messaging refers to any communication service that facilitates the transmission of electronic written information from one mobile device to another. This paper explores the reasons as to why the use of text messaging by healthcare providers as a form of communication is supported.
The benefits of text messaging notwithstanding, healthcare providers must be wary of the potential risks and penalties stipulated under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of allowing practitioners to communicate patient information via texting. It is true that patient information through texting constitutes electronic protected health information (ePHI). This information is subject to such security and privacy standards similar to electronic health records (HER) usually stored and maintained in health care facilities’ servers. If proper and appropriate policies, training, procedures and technological management is integrated and implemented, HIPAA compliant programs can offer the benefits of texting in a compliant way. There are three HIPAA principles that the security of protected health information must satisfy; integrity, confidentiality and availability (Ray, 2014).
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Secured ePHi emails that are HIPAA compliant are currently being utilized by medical practitioners. Sensitive information is highly secured through passwords hence providing an assurance of ensuring confidentiality of the information therein and only accessible to authorized persons (Drolet, 2017). Equally, there are third-party texting services that can be explored to assist providers in meeting the HIPAA compliance standards. In addition, there are other messaging platforms that can be used that offer security and privacy features of information such as end-to-end encryption of texts, recipient authentication, remote deletion of texts and other secured transmissions of images and charts.
It is also of significant interest to note that secure texting applications are available that can have electronic health records (EHR) of hospitals integrated with the secure texting program ( Herold & Beaver, 2014 ). These applications can be adopted by healthcare organizations to enable users to integrate information from or into the EHR in regard to text conversations. Alternatively, if the healthcare organization does not desire to use a third party texting platform, the organization can adopt its policies and workers training that allows controlled use of texting that is free of protected health information or other confidential information.
References
Drolet, B. C. (2017). Security of text messaging in clinical care—reply. JAMA , 318 (14), 1396. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.12966
Herold, R., Beaver, K. (2014). The practical guide to HIPAA privacy and security compliance, Second Edition . New York. Imprint Auerbach Publications
Lauffenburger, J. C., & Choudhry, N. K. (2016). Text messaging and patient engagement in an increasingly mobile world. Circulation , 2016, 133:555-556. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.116.021182
Ray, A. W. (2004). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In J. Stahl (ed) Encyclopedia of Health Care Management . doi:10.4135/9781412950602.n369
