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Infographic: Texting in healthcare – a not-so-simple exchange

April 18th, 2016

Sending text messages between health care providers and patients is incredibly common but it is also generally a violation of HIPAA.  See: To Text of Not To Text.  Texting and healthcare.  This infographic covers when texting occurs and where the risk arises.

Texting in healthcare – a not-so-simple exchange

Texting in healthcare - a not-so-simple exchange

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Texting in Healthcare: A Not-So-Simple Exchange

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) provides protection and privacy for a patient’s protected health information (PHI) and other medical-related data.

When healthcare professionals use text messaging to send electronic PHI (ePHI) via insecure telecommunication networks, that data can be misdirected or stolen, and result in costly, and dangerous, HIPAA violations.

Texting Among Healthcare Professionals

The Upsides

  • Medical personnel, healthcare providers and physicians can send text or SMS messages via smartphones, pagers, electronic medical record (EMR) systems, computerized physician order entry (COPE) systems, appointment scheduling software, and many other applications.
  • Texting is fast, reliable, and easy when working in a busy hospital.
  • It’s popular. Each month, over 350 billion text messages are sent worldwide (2014).

The Downsides

  • Texting a notice of an appointment time with an identified medical professional is a violation of HIPAA.
  • Text messages are often stored and saved on telecommunication servers, online backups, workstations, and smartphones for an indefinite amount of time.
  • Many devices and networks are not secure, not encrypted, and don’t require passwords for access.
  • IT departments at hospitals don’t typically monitor texts sent by smartphone.
  • Text messages with ePHI to patients are not HIPAA-compliant and require proper patient consent and training.
  • Text messages with ePHI between healthcare workers are never permissible under HIPAA.

 

Texting Prevalence in Hospitals

  • 91% of pediatric hospitalist respondents use a smartphone regularly
  • 60% send work-related texts via their device
  • 61% receive work-related texts via their device
  • 12% receive work-related texts more than 10x per shift
  • 64% send the majority of their work-related texts to other pediatric hospital employees
  • 53% receive work-related texts even when they’re not working
  • 30% noted receiving PHI via text messages

Only 11% noted that the hospital or institution they work with offers some form of encrypted software for communication via texting. 

When Do HIPAA Violations Occur?

HIPAA violations can occur when:

  1. A device containing ePHI is stolen.
  2. A device containing ePHI isn’t disposed of properly.
  3. ePHI is intercepted or viewed by someone who isn’t authorized.
  4. The ePHI in question can’t be accessed by anyone who’s authorized.
  5. A Business Associate Agreement is not in place with vendors* through which text messages which may contain ePHI travel.

* BAAs are required with any vendor used for sending ePHI over text message, as long as that vendor is not a common carrier (e.g. a phone company like Verizon is a common carrier, Apple and EHR vendors are not).

In order to continue texting without having to worry about the protection of ePHI, healthcare organizations must invest in digital security.

Encryption software for networks and devices, encrypted passwords, registered devices, consistent best-practices training, and secure messaging programs are all options available through third-party HIPAA security experts.

Allowing texting without addressing compliance requirements practically guarantees a violation and could be considered “willful neglect.”

Sources


This entry was posted on Monday, April 18th, 2016 at 10:51 am and is filed under LuxSci Library: HIPAA.