E-mail and patients: a medicolegal minefield

Gordon, Colin; Krimholtz, M

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(03)14872-6

Cited by 13 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…A United Kingdom outpatient clinic reports that emailing test results might be considered a breach of the Data Protection Act unless there is prior written consent from a patient. 20 This could address GPs' fears of the implications of an email to a patient being read by a third party. Where a patient has not established a therapeutic relationship with a GP, it is unlikely that the GP would be held liable for non-response to an unsolicited email from a potential patient.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandora's electronic box: GPs reflect upon email communication with their patients

Goodyear‐Smith¹,

Wearn²,

Everts³

et al. 2005

Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics

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Background Global access to information technology has increased dramatically in the past decade, with electronic health care changing medical practice. One example for general practitioners (GPs) is communication with patients via electronic mail (email). GPs face issues regarding e-communication with patients, including how and when it should it be used. Objective The study aims were to assess the extent that GPs communicate with patients by email and explore their attitudes to this mode of communication. Methods Design -telephone interview survey. Setting -primary care, largest urban and suburban area in New Zealand (NZ). Subjects -randomly selected GPs from the Auckland region. Main outcome measure -description of email use; analysis of issues by telephone survey. Data analysed using SPSS-12 and by thematic content analysis. Results At data saturation, 80 GPs had been interviewed. The majority (68%) had not used email with patients. Only 4% used it regularly. However,

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandora's electronic box: GPs reflect upon email communication with their patients

Goodyear‐Smith¹,

Wearn²,

Everts³

et al. 2005

Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics

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“…Given the growing use of e-mail in health and mental health services, it is likely that social work service providers will also become involved in e-mail communications (McCarty & Clancy, 2002). There is some evidence that an increasing number of social work professionals, primarily private practitioners, are involved in e-mail-based "e-therapy" practice on the Web (Finn, 2002), and there has been much discussion in the social science literature about the benefits/costs and ethics of e-mail-based practice (Banach & Bernat, 2000;Finn & Banach, 2002;Gordon & Krimholtz, 2003;Stofle, 1999) as well as the potential of e-mail to provide and supplement health and social services (Barak, 2001;Laszlo, Esterman, & Zabko, 1999;Stroem, Pattersson, & Andersson, 2000;Tate, Wing, & Winett, 2001). Little is known, however, about the extent that social workers in agency practice use e-mail with consumers.…”

Section: E-mail Communicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agency-Based Social Workers' Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Service-Related Unsolicited E-mail

Finn

Krysik²

2007

Journal of Technology in Human Services

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A survey of 470 social workers in 17 agencies in central Pennsylvania explored attitudes and behaviors related to receiving unsolicited e-mail (UE). Results found that receiving UE is not an uncommon occurrence, with more than one-half of social workers receiving UE from strangers and one in six receiving UE from consumers. Social workers differed in their responses to UE, with approximately threefourths answering UE from consumers and one-fourth answering UE from strangers. Responses to UE were related to individual attitudes as well as to agency policy. There is considerable variation in agency policy and only 60% of the social workers in this study knew whether their agency had an e-mail policy and only 15% knew if the policy included UE. Implications for agency policy and further research are discussed.

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“…Further problems arise from the issues of encryption of personal information, and transfer by email of many results (or their interpretation) may not conform with the Data Protection Act. 9 A topical and important issue is the reporting of grossly abnormal results that arise outside usual general practitioner surgery hours: currently, the Royal College of Pathologists is liaising with the Royal College of General Practitioners with a view to clarifying the responsibilities of the various people involved. 10 An increase in the number of requests will probably give rise to a greater number of abnormal results compared with the current level, and this is even more likely if the requests are for high risk patients.…”

Section: Preanalytical Phasementioning

confidence: 99%