"E-patients"

"Griffin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:2004052118285216807%griffin@wellscom...

Quoted message said:

Interesting online article:

medscape.com478313Open ↗

For some time, I've made it a point to ask all of my
patients if they use the Internet, if they have e-mail,
etc. My e-mail address is on my business cards, and I
include the patient's e-mail address in their chart if
they want me to use it as a method of contact. In these
cases, they sign a simple "e-mail agreement" that
basically says they understand that it's not to be used
for urgent communcation or diagnosis, and that it's not
secure. If patients are Internet-savvy, I'll sometimes
refer them to specific web sites with information about a
condition or health topic that we're addressing. I keep
mailing lists of my online diabetic patients, for example,
and will periodically send out broadcast messages to the
list when I run across something that I think will
interest them. Several people routinely send me their
blood pressure and blood sugar readings, which are printed
and filed in their chart, as are any other clinically-
relevent communications. All of this takes very little of
my time, and the patients seem to really like it. Just
curious if anyone else is doing anything similar.

Yes, I for one encourage it, along similar lines although my
specialty is different, and therefore such communication
patterns are different. I haven't done the email agreement
thing, but over the last few years have had no occasion to
regret that. It's not something that is misused in my
particular practice.

My home phone number is also on my card and it's more often
that patients or their family members call me rather than
email with questions about a particular surgical diagnosis
or procedure that we are dealing with.

HMc

Howard McCollister said:

Yes, I for one encourage it, along similar lines although
my specialty is different, and therefore such
communication patterns are different.

General surgery, right?

Quoted message said:

I haven't done the email agreement thing, but over the
last few years have had no occasion to regret that. It's
not something that is misused in my particular practice.

In the early days, I didn't do that either. I added it
after HIPAA came into play, mostly because my practice
advisors suggested it. In general, most HIPAA stuff strikes
me as overkill.

Quoted message said:

My home phone number is also on my card and it's more
often that patients or their family members call me rather
than email with questions about a particular surgical
diagnosis or procedure that we are dealing with.

You're brave. ;-) I'm listed in the phone book, but rarely
get calls from patients. I don't encourage it, as I'm a big
believer in compartmentalizing one's time for sanity's sake.
I also can't ensure that I'll be able to respond in a timely
fasion, so I prefer that patients contact our on-call
physician after hours (which, every few days, happens to be
me). If I absolutely, positively have to be contacted, the
on-call doc always knows how to find me (my cell phone is
practically fused to my hip).