Exchanging clinical information about a patient via mail, fax or email is not secure because of the risk of interference.
Secure messaging is an additional, key eHealth foundation, defining the protocols for safe and efficient transmission of sensitive healthcare information.
The specifications which have been developed will allow health information to flow securely between the many different types of software used in different parts of Australia’s health system.
Secure messaging minimises the burden of manual and paper processes and is a timely and efficient means for sending and receiving clinical information, freeing up staff to complete other necessary tasks and reducing the costs of administrative tasks such as paper for scanning and faxing, postage and staff hours.
Some benefits of secure messaging include:
- Integrates directly with clinical software systems
- Improved patient matching
- Critical patient information is more readily available and accessible
- Reduces the chances of communication breakdown
- Send/Receive audit trail
- Receive priority clinical information in real time