Text Message Use Among Providers Raise HIPAA Concerns

As the possibilities for electronic communication continue to expand with great speed, use of the technology by hospital employees and physicians without adequate security can expose your facility to HIPAA violations. The increasing use of cell phones and texting as an alternative to voice conversations or e-mail presents real risks for security failures leading to HIPAA violations.

Use of text messaging to physicians on the rise
Some hospital systems now use e-mails instead of the past pager method to notify physicians to contact the hospital about a patient. The e-mails are entered by the hospital employee, converted into a text message and sent to the physician's cellular phone. Physicians frequently request that more patient data is included in the message, such as the patient's name and room number, so the physician can look up the chart prior to returning the call. This system is frequently not encrypted, however, because of the extra expense to the hospital. Some hospital employees may even send text messages directly from their personal cell phone to the physician's personal cell phone to ask for medication orders, instructions, clarification of orders and the like.

Potential HIPAA violations
In both scenarios described above, hospital security systems are not used since the messages go to and/or from personal cell phones. Unless the text messages are protected by the hospital's security system, both practices would be in violation of the HIPAA rules and can have additional consequences in other areas. Clearly, both practices include protected health information under HIPAA, since patients' names are used, rather than a chart number or other non-personal identifying method. Although the use of the PHI without an authorization is permitted under the Privacy Rule of HIPAA for treatment, payment or operations, the use must also meet the Security Standards of HIPAA.

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Source: beckershospitalreview.com
By: Joyce McLaughlin, JD