I would like to put a different slant on this discussion. In Central Texas we have implemented a program we call ARCHES whereas we have ham radios in all local hospitals and EOC for purposes of capturing patient info during mass casualty events. What we collect and forward on to the EOC are a list of patient names, age, sex and current status i.e. Admitted, transferred to new hospital, seen and released. We do not capture or transmit any medical data as the purpose of the program is to allow the EOC to have a better grasp on capacity issues at all facilities and allow for the ability to locate folks sent to hospitals or missing folks that may self transport themselves from a scene to a hospital.
We are also cognizant of HIPPA and also of local media looking for patient lists to publish or follow up on. We have found Airmail /Winlink allows us this security due to its method of deliverying the message in a readable format only to those stations addressed to. I have not come across any need for us to ever transmit medical data, ssn or other type of data as these are not needed by the EOC or other served agencies. Patients being transferred have their medical packets sent along with that data and any being treated and released the hospital already have that info. We also do not consider this encyption but encoding which is legal under the rules. 73, Lee Cooper, W5LHC Public Information Coordinator South Texas Section
