It was announced recently that the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has effectively banned the use of text messaging as a means to communicate between physicians and patients, saying it’s “not acceptable” for medical professionals to communicate patient information via SMS.

Here at mobileStorm, we’ve long understood the risk and subsequent issues with security and privacy in terms of using SMS and any other insecure form of mobile communication for healthcare information — especially when transmitting sensitive patient data or “Protected Health Information” (PHI).  This was the primary basis for our development of mobileStorm for Healthcare, a fully HIPAA-compliant secure communication platform that allows for the transmission of Protected Health Information directly to mobile devices — without the need for text messaging.

SMS is a communication channel that can never become secure, and thus can never become a truly HIPAA-compliant means to communicate health information.  Doing so can put physicians and the healthcare organizations they’re associated with in jeopardy of costly HIPAA violations and other repercussions, which is the primary reason the JCAHO issued its ban.  Unfortunately, the need for mobile communication between healthcare organizations and consumers is more important than ever as it provides one of the best means to influence patient behavior.  Physicians and healthcare organizations shouldn’t look at these new JCAHO guidelines as an indication to completely abandon mobile messaging initiatives altogether, and should instead seek guidance from vendors like mobileStorm who understand how to facilitate healthcare messaging the right way.

mobileStorm for Healthcare leverages mobile apps to communicate directly to mobile devices, effectively bypassing SMS altogether.  A healthcare organization can leverage their existing app (or we can build one for them) that uses an “inbox” in which the healthcare organization can send messages to.  These messages are called “AppMail,” and can be both secure (for sending PHI) or nonsecure for any other forms of communication.  With our solution, a healthcare organization can leverage their own branded mobile app to send communication that was never before possible via insecure channels like SMS — such as detailed test and lab results.

As a healthcare organization or medical professional, look at these new JCAHO text messaging guidelines as an opportunity to become fully compliant in terms of your mobile messaging initiatives while reducing overall communication costs and improving patient care in the process.

For much more information, head on over to our detailed healthcare section or schedule a demo with one of our healthcare representatives.