I think we should just let people send unencrypted emails until the
shit hits the fan.
If it has become a part of their routine clinical practice, then when
they are no longer allowed to send unencrypted emails, THEY will
pressure their business administrative and funding people to fix it.
But their business people will not listen to GP's complaints.
David Guest wrote:
Rob Hosking wrote:
Update.
Since I have communicated with Mr Oppey at the Austin he has had further
communication from others (notably the AMA) who were concerned about the
Austin's approach of using unencrypted e-mails to GPs. He was taking
these concerns back to the Privacy committee of the Austin and was
reinvestigating encryption options.
Others on the list have stated that we should not discourage health
professionals sending e-mails to us if not encrypted by saying we are
not legally liable. Maybe so, but I feel I have a duty to protect my
patients from all manner of bad practice when it comes to their health
issues. If I am aware of poor standards being practised on my patients
then I should do what I can, as a patient advocate, to avoid that. This
extends to communication from hospitals. I have complained to hospital
managements many times about poor quality and poorly timed discharge
information and I will continue to do so. Likewise, I will not receive
e-mails unencrypted from other health professionals in order to protect
my patients' privacy. You may not be liable, but your patient may suffer
a bad outcome as a result of receiving sensitive information in
unencrypted e-mails.
Rob
I have a slightly different take on this issue.
Whenever I receive unencrypted clinical information I thank the sender,
noting how much more efficient and safer that makes care for the
patient, the GP and other providers. I do go on to point out that we
should really encrypt this information for the purpose of protecting the
patient's privacy and suggest, if they like, I will send my little man
round to install a CaCert certificate for them. The upshot is that about
30% get certificates and 70% no longer send me data.
So we ensure privacy at the cost of worse health care. It's a pyrrhic
victory.
David
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