(Oct. 15, 2009) Performing daily business transactions through electronic technologies is an accepted, reliable and necessary approach across the nation’s healthcare sectors. There is no doubt effective use of e-mail and related Web communications have improved the delivery of quality care. However, using the Web poses concerns about the privacy and security of a patient’s information. 

In health care, the confidentiality of a patient’s information has been sacred since the days of the Hippocratic Oath (Hippocrates – the Father of Medicine, 400 B.C.). Today, merely taking an oath to respect one’s privacy has been overshadowed by regulations that govern how certain health care establishments must handle patient health information. Most notably, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), signed into law by President Obama on Feb. 17, 2009, requires encryption of all patient information transmitted via the Web to ensure the information is “secured.” Various technologies have been implemented to secure messages within our “affiliate protected network,” inclusive of University of Colorado Denver, University Physicians, Inc. (UPI), The University of Colorado Hospital (UCH), The Children’s Hosptital (TCH), Denver Health and National Jewish. No action is required when sending e-mail transmissions to individuals with e-mail addresses originating from these organizations. When sending e-mail transmissions containing patient information outside the “affiliate protected network,” you must encrypt.  Encryption processes are specific to your e-mail address.

--For staff using UC Denver e-mail, further guidance and detailed instructions on the use of encryption software is at: http://administration.ucdenver.edu/admin/its/securemail.htm   
--For staff using UCH e-mail, see: http://hub.uch.edu/pdf/IS-Secure%20emailI.pdf   
--For staff using UPI e-mail, see: http://intranet.upicolo.org/docs/IS/UPI-SAFEmailEncryption.pdf  
--For staff using TCH e-mail, further see: http://eames.thechildrenshospital.org:6300/psp/poprd/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/e/?url=http%3a%2f%2fplanettch%2fdepartments%2findex.cfm%3fRecordID%3d40