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Should physicians communicate with patients via e-mail?(POINT-COUNTERPOINT)
E-mail Offers Advantages
E-mail opens up the bandwidth of communication with our patients. With this medium, patients can initiate contact 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at their convenience, and physicians can reply at a time most convenient for them. Unlike telephone consultations and office visits that have to be arranged and tend to be episodic, e-mail allows for expanded communication.
It can be a great tool for brief follow-up interactions, which is especially useful in helping patients make lifestyle changes such as losing weight or quitting smoking. A weekly update on a patient's weight loss is easily done by e-mail instead of scheduling frequent office visits. E-mail is also a way to communicate laboratory results that is much faster than sending out letters.
Patient-generated e-mail makes up about half of the e-mail I receive in my office and usually includes general health questions, minor complaints not requiring a visit, or is part of participation in a chronic illness program. Physician- or staff-generated e-mail makes up the other half with my staff sending lab results or information to patients managing chronic conditions.
E-mail is a self-documenting medium. In general, phone communication is poorly documented, but with e-mail, patients are actually contributing to their own medical record. For physicians who do not have an electronic medical record, e-mail communication can be added to the paper record the same way you would add a progress note. Inclusion of this information ensures that the record reflects all the care provided and can protect physicians legally. However, patients need to agree up front that their e-mail will be a part of their record.
I have a few suggestions on working with e-mail.
Consider including information about your e-mail policies on your patient consent form. For example, I let my patients know that e-mail is not to be used in an emergency and that it may take 1-3 days for me to respond. Also, I prefer to conduct e-mail communication with patients over a secure Web site because of the sensitivity of the information.
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