Electronic Healthcare Records: Protecting Patient Privacy Through Secure Digital File Transfer

Electronic healthcare records have revolutionized the healthcare industry with respect to how care is delivered and compensated. The benefits of electronic healthcare records abound - care providers can improve the quality and convenience of patient care along with diagnostic accuracy and health outcomes, increase patient participation in their own treatment, facilitate care coordination and increase practice efficiencies.Successful EHR implementation hinges on two key factors. First, care providers need a solution in place to digitize and store the records safely. And second, they need a way to share files with one another without compromising patient privacy.When confidential patient files exchange hands digitally, it's important that the right protocols are in place to protect privacy. And with physicians sending electronic healthcare records to each other via email to coordinate treatment, it's critical that these documents are encrypted and secure.Secure document delivery solutions ensure that confidential electronic medical records remain private and protected during the digital file transfer process. Physicians can coordinate care more efficiently and effectively if they can quickly and comprehensively communicate with each other without putting patient privacy at risk.For instance, if a patient suffering from chronic back pain is referred by a primary care physician to a specialist, the primary care physician's observations and recorded notes provide invaluable context and detail to the specialist. And when the specialist refers the patient to the physical therapist, the chain continues, but the history is lost - unless the secure file transfer occurs.


Patients are human beings - they can't be expected to provide consistent and robust accounts of their symptoms, treatment history, and health risks. However, the track to better treatment outcomes is a clear path when communication between practitioners is timely and comprehensive.Beyond the detailed history that a patient can provide, there are risk factors that must be managed across practitioners that can be life threatening. Conditions, medication interactions, allergies and other treatment nuances cannot be addressed without full purview into a patient's medical record.From a physician's perspective, the ultimate priority is always providing the best possible care to a patient. The ability to provide this high quality care is predicated on complete visibility into a patient's health history - conditions, medications, allergies and any and all other pertinent factors affecting a physician's ability to provide sound counsel.Full visibility is better for the patient and better for the practitioner - the fuller the picture, the better the care.