110-18 Electronic Communication with Patient/Client
Category:
Administration
Subject:
Electronic Communication with Patient/Client
Policy Number:
110-18
Effective Date:
November, 2014
Next Review Date:
November, 2016
Responsible Manager(s):
Clinic Support Services Director
Information Systems Manager
Purpose:
To enable electronic communication with patient/client while maintaining confidentiality and security of patient/client information.
Policy:
Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) utilizes Open Communicator within the Point and Click Open Chart application to provide secure, online, confidential, health care communication with our patients/clients and staff. The service is named Health-e-Messaging (HeM) and is meant to accommodate a patient’s/client’s non-urgent health care communication needs. All messages to patients/clients are communicated through secure HeM, not regular email because email is an unsecure form of communication. If a patient/client sends a message to SHCS staff through regular email, SHCS staff will respond by telephone, HeM or written correspondence, as appropriate.
Definitions:
Patients/clients are referred to the SHCS HealtheMessaging web site: http://hem.ucdavis.edu
Patients/clients with an active UC Davis Kerberos account and Student ID can utilize the service.
HealtheMessaging can be used to notify patients/clients of diagnostic testing results schedule an appointment, communicate with office staff, appointment reminders, or send a note to a provider.
Messages to/from patients/clients and those staff-to-staff messages that attach patients/clients become a part of the patient’s/client’s electronic health record.
Not all providers have HealtheMessaging turned on to receive secured messages from patients for various reasons.