I am sure we have all been in the predicament of sending John C. an email, but when we clicked on our contacts list we accidentally sent it to John B. I have conversations constantly with clients and friends about encrypting their email to protect themselves and often get the same set of questions…
- “Isn’t that expensive?”
- “How does someone unlock the email I sent?”
- “Won’t that take a lot longer for me to encrypt it?”
- “Why should I take the extra time? The person who gets it will just delete it.”
There seems to be a lack of understanding in the market place of how simple it is to take this one extra step to protect yourself and private information.
This has become an increasingly obvious issue in the healthcare space. The amount of ePHI sent daily between providers, insurers, patients, labs, etc. is vast and sooner or later mistakes will be made. When one patient receives another patient’s records this typically worries the individual who receives it and angers the patient whose information was released – accidentally or not. There are numerous low cost encrypted email services and even most of your standard email platforms come with settings for encryption. Encrypting your email ultimately protects you, your patients, and your practice.
I recently ran across an article that gives a very simple explanation of how encryption works and the advantages. When we do make mistakes and the wrong person can’t open the information, we have ultimately protected everyone with a single, simple step. Let’s do all of mankind a favor and take one small step…ENCRYPT.
I hope you enjoy the article.