HIPPA is a bill that has been used by the government for guiding the medical centers in terms of security. This is the security of the patients information. That this information will be safe and that it may not get out. This regulations do not extend to texting per say. There is no specific point in the legislation that has said anything about the text that are sent from the medical to the patients. because it is about the protection if clients information then you will need to take care when you are sending out the texts. Texts have become very convenient to use to send out messages that you will need to covey. They are being used by many facilities and also people are using the service very much. When you decide to use the texting services for your patients you will need to be very careful so that you do not go against the hipaa compliant. The best way to be sure that you are not violating any of the hipaa compliant texting guidelines , is not include any personal identifying markers in the texts. Here are some examples of texting that are HIPPA compliant.
One of the texts that you can send is the one of reminder. This means you can text a patient to remind them of the time and date that they have their next appointment. This is good for they will be on the know. You can also send them a reminder for their prescription so that they do not forget to get the medication. Also if you send the reminder for the prescription you will remind them the times that they should be taking the medication as well.
You can also use the texting to send patients information. This means that you can send the results of tests that the patients have taken to their phones through texting. This may include some personal information. To make sure that you are on the right side of the HIPPA compliance make sure that you view here to get the patients consent before doing this.
The other is using the text in inter office communication. This means the communication between the members of your team. The people working there like nurses can use the texting to communicate. This means that it will be easier for your team to communicate when they are using texts. You will need to make sure that they understand not to use any personal identifying markers in the texts that they send inter office. Discover more about this topic here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecom.