New technology has made it more convenient for clinical information to be shared among Oklahoma City health care providers and patients.
Instead of waiting by the fax machine, secure messaging offers a faster, less expensive and secure way to send and receive patient information.
Through secure, encrypted email exchange, information such as clinical care summaries, referrals, care notes, lab results, and images can be shared among healthcare providers.
Also online medical communications are very popular with patients, giving them access to their own health information and an opportunity to interact with their caregivers and healthcare providers.
Uses for Secure Messaging
- Promotes coordination of care between home health visits.
- Handle routine health concerns.
- Provides an easy way for patients to ask questions or express concerns about their care.
- Monitoring a patient's medical condition.
- Aid in the adjustment of a patient's plan of care if necessary.
- Assists patients to better manage their health condition.
- Share images in a secure manner to aid in prompt treatments.
Patient Benefits
- Communicate with the caregiver or healthcare provider from the comfort of their own home, unpressured.
- Provides easier access to caregivers than by telephone.
- Allows patients to feel more comfortable discussing issues that may be sensitive to them than face-to-face interaction.
- Offers patients a way to easily ask follow-up questions.
- Enables patients to share vital information such as blood pressure or blood glucose readings with caregivers and providers.
- Gives patients a quick way to receive special healthcare instructions.
Home Healthcare Company Benefits
- Avoids delays in communication.
- Provides an efficient way for routine health issues to be handled.
- Creates efficiency and time savings with better handling of patient requests.
How to Engage Patients in Secure Messaging
It's important to involve all staff in the promotion of secure messaging, both clinical and non-clinical. You'll need to work with your staff and remind them what to highlight with patients.
There are a number of channels you can use to bring everyone on board. You could make a mention of it on your website, in your social media posts, on your telephone on-hold message, and in letters and postcards sent out to your patients. You'll want to educate your patients and their families on this new technology with regard to what information is appropriate to send and when they should expect a response.
Once your system is up and running, as current users about their experience and thoughts about improvements. In other words, what do they like and what do they not like?
Always remember to thank your patients for using your system and be sure to follow up to make sure they've had a great experience.
Bottom Line
Whether you are receiving new patient data or following up on a patient's blood pressure, secure messaging has become an excellent and chosen method of communication for home health organizations in Oklahoma City. The quality of care and patient outcomes, as well as collaboration among team members, can be improved utilizing this secure, encrypted technology.
Is your home healthcare organization using secure messaging? Share your experiences in the Comments box below.
And to follow up on the tips introduced in this article, be sure to download your free Information Technology Guide for Oklahoma City Home Health Care Organizations.
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