What Electronic Communication Growth Means For Providers

By Terry Edwards, CEO, PerfectServe

Enabling mobile electronic communication between clinicians can enable hospitals, health systems, and physician practices to deliver high-quality care at rapid speeds. But securing these communications becomes a major challenge for providers – one that cannot be ignored.

Before the digital age, clinicians relied on rolodexes, flowcharts, third-party messaging services, and Post-it notes to communicate, leaving plenty of room for human error or incorrect interpretation. These obstacles often led to delayed response time or missing information that may be considered crucial to the outcome of the patient. It was not that long ago when pagers were considered the mobile communications standard of care.

Today, however, we have a proliferation of mobile communication devices, services, and applications that are used by clinicians, and we have increased HIPAA-compliance regulations. Because electronic protected healthcare information (ePHI) is transmitted and accessed by these devices, according to the law that information must be secured. This presents an overwhelming challenge to providers, their staff, and their businesses.

In the unfortunate event that a breach occurs due to lack of security precautions, not only is patients’ trust in the practice undermined, but the reputation of the organization is devalued. It can also result in high legal fees and expensive settlements, which providers may be fully accountable for depending on the nature of the incident. In fact, according to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of HIPPA breaches for 2010-2012 was $2.4 million per organization.

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