TeleHealth Connect vs. Email

TeleHealth Connect provides a safe and secure environment for electronically exchanging Protected Health Information [PHI] between patients and the healthcare community.

Email Limitations

A major problem with standard emails is that they are transmitted across the internet unprotected. This makes them vulnerable to interception. Another limitation associated with emails is lack of documentation and audit trails. Once an email is sent, you have no idea when it was read, everyone who read it, or what the recipient has done with it.

As well as the major risks of sending PHI via email, email has its shares of minor annoyances. Spam for instance; email allows anyone from anywhere the opportunity to send you anything. Emails are designed for communication between individuals. Communication in the healthcare community is centered around departments, clinics, and physician staff. Sending emails to individual staff members limits their processing to the availability of that individual.

In addition, there is no agreement between the parties involved in email communications regarding how the information exchanged will be used. This is an essential part of healthcare since HIPAA privacy regulations were introduced.

The TeleHealth Connect Solution

TeleHealth Connect messages never travel across the internet. Users log in to the system to compose and read messages that are stored directly in a safe, secure cloud environment. This eliminates any threat of interception. All messages are logged in the system. Each contributor of a message knows when a message was read, replied to and printed. Logs help maintain communication status and integrity between the patient and the healthcare providers.

Because each contact in a users contact list must be mutually accepted, TeleHealth Connect users never have to worry about unsolicited messages or Spam appearing in their inbox. Providers can define the legal terms of use for information exchanged through this connection so clinical or billing data exchanged through this process can be included in the medical record.

Messages in TeleHealth Connect are different than email in that a patient does not communicate directly with an individual, instead a patient corresponds with an account (Inbox). Accounts can contain many users, this allows staff members to initially receive the message and then triage the message accordingly. Each member of the account can add a thread to the message; all threads are visible to everyone associated to the message. Every time an Account member or Patient views the message a log is created showing everyone who has viewed the message. Access to this log is provided to both the patient and the provider so that either party can determine the current status of a message and how long it has been at that state.