How HIPAA Texting Apps Will Change Patient-Doctor Relationships

Everyone is using multiple instant messaging apps these days. People around the world are embracing the idea of this quick, and easy way of communication with the health care provider. But, when it is linked with facilitating the patients with a desirable alternative, such as texting, to communicate with the physicians, it accompanies the risk of data privacy issues even for the doctors who try to stay HIPAA compliant.

SECURE TEXTING IN HEALTH CARE

Have you ever thought of getting health advice, or sharing a certain medical condition/test result with your doctor right away? With access to immediate advice whenever and wherever you want? Secure texting apps provide patients with a substitute to physicians’ and health care facility visits. Secure text messaging for health care via apps/patient portal, is a quick and easy way to communicate rather than through conventional mediums, such as e-mails or phone calls.HIPAA compliant text messaging apps can make a huge impact in lives of patients by making communication more efficient in healthcare. Secured messaging apps will let patients exchange information securely without the risk of data being compromised. Now, you as a patient will not have to wait for follow-up visits to the physician’s office. You would be able to easily share test results, or questions, over a smart phone app without any data privacy issues.

Qliq is a HIPAA compliant messaging and scheduling app; it offers a leading encrypted messaging platform to healthcare organizations to keep your data and communication secure.  The patients, doctors, and healthcare centers can safely adopt Qliq, to ensure HIPAA compliant secure texting and messaging services. It offers everything you need to stay connected without comprising any of your personal data or information!

"I love the way the solution is encrypted from end to end. There is no server in the middle that stores the information where somebody at that third party can actually read it." says Wathena Braham, Director of IT at Healthback Home Health.

HIPAA COMPLIANT TEXTING APPS VS FACE-TO-FACE VISITS: WHAT WOULD PATIENTS PREFER?

Research conducted by Frederick North and coworkers (2014) evaluates the impact of secure messaging/electronic visits (e-visit) through a patient portal on a personal visit by patients in the healthcare facility. 2,357 patients were involved in the research study, the frequency of these patients’ face-to-face visits was calculated, and final results showed that portal messaging did not impact the frequency of face-to-face visits by the patient. Surprisingly, patients who were more active on these messaging portals had more frequent in-person visits as well!

Bottom Line:

We strongly believe that the use of HIPAA compliant text messaging is surely “‘the new way”. It is important to make these HIPAA compliant texting apps more efficient and secure. Secure text messaging for healthcare is ideal to get a quick response from medical professionals under some circumstances. Physical examination has an importance of its own, though. To get the best out of it, the onus is on the patient to make a choice about when to get a medical opinion over a messaging portal and when to go for a face-to-face visit. Isn’t it great to have options?Contact us to find out how QliqSOFT's secure messaging applications can help your group or practice improve communication and collaboration for the future!