June 12, 2004 10:18 PM
Using e-mail to communicate with patients... any good ?
We all have had patients who asked for our e-mail addresses. Most physicians that I spoken to regarding this issue felt uncomfortable communicating with patients via e-mail, for several reasons:
1) There is no one triaging the e-mails and looking out for emergent issues. Eg: "Doc, I just noticed my vision is a bit blurry... is it ok ?" Notice the enormous liability issue
2) Reimbursement. It will take time to convince insurance companies (and Medicare, of course), that if e-mail is to be considered a patient "encounter", physicians should be reimbursed for it.
3) HIPPA. I won't even discuss this, but of course privacy is a big issue, after all, most e-mail travels unencrypted through the Internet
4) Lack of face to face contact, or at least real-time contact such as telephone
There is an article from Johns Hopkins published in J Med Internet Res that goes through physician's perspectives about this issue.
Posted by leo at June 12, 2004 10:18 PM
E-mail communication is like writing a letter. As long as patients don't expect more from it than that, there's usually not a problem. You wouldn't write your doctor a letter telling him or her you're having chest pain, so don't send an e-mail. ;-)
Posted by: Kent W. at June 13, 2004 10:06 AM
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