Electronic communication is simply the process through which people connect via online channels. Different healthcare organizations use different electronic communication strategies to communicate public, specialized, or personal information with their patients. My organization applies diverse forms of electronic communication, predominantly the social media page, emails, text messages, and direct calls to communicate with patients. In addition, my organization exercises a high level of confidentiality and privacy when communicating with patients, which in line with the organization’s HIPAA policy.
Recognizing the important role of social media networks in enhancing patient engagement, my organization holds several social media platforms, including a Facebook page, a Twitter handle, and Instagram. Besides using these accounts to market services offered, the organization uses these social sites to publicize local health programs. The social media sites create a virtual community allowing patients to have a close connection with the hospital, something that may not be possible when they are within the hospital (Adams, 2016). In addition, social media sites allow the hospital to participate in conversations happening online. This way, both the patients and hospital professionals stay active. Further to this, my hospital occasionally invites professionals from different departments to educate patients on topics such as breast cancer, diabetes, and healthy living.
For personalized information, my hospital prefers to use email, text messages, or direct calls to communicate with patients. These tools are mainly used by physicians providing primary care to patients. Compared to social media sites, these tools provide confidentiality. Emails are predominantly used when physicians wish to respond to patients’ queries as well as to reschedule appointments. Direct calls and text messages, on the other hand, are widely used to make patient follow-ups (Dash et al., 2016). The main advantage of emails, direct calls, and text messages is the improved relationship with patients. Additionally, these tools save a lot of time and enhance the follow-up process. However, emails, direct calls, and text messages are prone to misuse by patients and may sometimes interfere with the patient’s personal life (Dash et al., 2016). My organization, however, overcomes potential misuse or interference with a patient’s private life by having in place a robust HIPAA policy. Among other things, the policy establishes standards for protecting our patient’s personal medical records as well as other confidential health information.
My organization’s HIPAA policy ensures that confidentiality and privacy is upheld when communicating with patients. This is achieved by first classifying the information as either confidential or non-confidential. Any information that the hospital believes is sensitive and confidential is passed through closed electronic channels of communication, mainly the email address (Cohen & Mello, 2018). My organization does not ask patients to share with us their email address login passwords as doing this contravenes the organization’s HIPAA policy on privacy and confidentiality. Further to this, my organization does not air or post sensitive information about our patients on social media platforms as this would result in stigmatization. Additionally, we occasionally check for bugs in our electronic communication channels, particularly the phones to ensure that the information relayed to the patients is not accessed by unauthorized people with malicious motives. Thus, using these approaches, all of which are in line with my organization’s HIPAA policy, ensure that privacy and confidentiality are upheld when communicating with patients via electronic channels.
References
Adams, S. A. (2016). Use of social media by hospitals and health authorities. In Participatory health through social media (pp. 27-41). Academic Press.
Cohen, I. G., & Mello, M. M. (2018). HIPAA and protecting health information in the 21st century. Jama, 320(3), 231-232.
Dash, J., Haller, D. M., Sommer, J., & Perron, N. J. (2016). Use of email, cell phone and text message between patients and primary-care physicians: cross-sectional study in a French-speaking part of Switzerland. BMC health services research, 16(1), 1-7.
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