Policy Manual

 
  6.MEF.4  

Additional Information About Provider/Client Email      

Type: Form                 Category: Information Technology                 Level: Community Care 

Parties: Care Development of Maine employees and contractees

Printer Friendly Version: http://apps.comcareme.org/policymanual/default.aspx?code=6.MEF.4&nonav=yes

Supporting References: 

Parent Effective Date Approval Level Revision Dates Last Reviewed
6.MEP.41  12-12-2005  Management Team    12-12-2005
Related Document Code Related Document Name Type

Form:  .

Important Information About Provider/Client Email

 

As a client of a Community Care provider or office, you have the right to request we communicate with you by electronic mail (email). It is also your right to be informed in sufficient detail about the risks of communicating via email with your health care provider or office, and how Community Care will use and disclose provider/client email.

 

PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION CAREFULLY

 

  • Email communications are two-way communications. However, responses and replies to emails sent to or received by either you or your provider may be hours or days apart. This means that there could be a delay in receiving treatment for an acute condition.

 

  • If you have an urgent or an emergency situation, you should not rely solely on provider/patient email to request assistance or to describe the urgent or emergency situation. Instead, you should act as though provider/client email is not available to you � and seek assistance by means consistent with your needs.

 

  • Email messages on your computer, your laptop, and/or your PDA have inherent privacy risks � especially when your email access is provided through your employer or when access to your email messages is not password protected.

 

  • Unencrypted email provides as much privacy as a postcard. You should not communicate any information with your provider that you would not want to be included on a postcard that is sent through the post office.

 

  • Email messages may be inadvertently missed. To minimize this risk, Community Care requires you respond appropriately to a test email message before we will allow health information about you to be communicated with you via email. You can also help minimize this risk by using only the email address that you are provided at the successful conclusion of the testing period to communicate with your Community Care providers or offices.

 

  • Email is sent at the touch of a button. Once sent, an email message cannot be recalled or cancelled. Errors in transmission, regardless of the sender's caution, can occur.

 

  • In order to forward or to process and respond to your email, individuals at Community Care other than your provider may read your email message. Your email message is not a private communication between you and your treating provider.

 

  • Neither you nor the person reading your email can see the facial expressions or gestures or hear the voice of the sender. Email can be misinterpreted.

 

  • At your provider's discretion, your email messages and any and all responses to them may become part of your medical record.