From the January 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

The new guidelines specify voice communication as the preferred method of handling patient orders if CPOE or written orders cannot be submitted. This stands as a reminder that it is prudent for health systems to take a more comprehensive view of their secure communications. Unlike a limited secure-texting solution, a comprehensive clinical communication and collaboration platform has the versatility — such as voice communication capabilities — necessary to adapt to changes in regulatory and professional guidelines as they arise.

It’s important to note that the Joint Commission’s new secure texting guidelines include very few specifics on the capabilities required to successfully fulfill its requirements. However, in order to operationalize secure texting at scale, health care systems require robust, system-wide solutions. This gap illustrates why taking a narrow, compliance-centric approach to secure texting is inadvisable. Hospitals and health systems should first meet compliance requirements, and then expand their secure texting solution criteria to include how well the technology does or doesn’t facilitate a smart workflow for communication.


Savvy health systems and hospitals are leveraging secure texting as a new, integrated communications channel that will enable their organizations to improve efficiency and patient experience. While we can’t be certain what the future holds in today’s ever-changing regulatory environment, secure texting is likely here to stay. Proactively adopting a comprehensive secure texting solution enables health systems to be compliant while avoiding risks such as compromised patient data and miscommunications that could affect the health and safety of patients.

Secure texting is still in its infancy, and as such, these solutions present exciting opportunities for health care providers to focus on optimizing workflows while improving provider satisfaction and patient safety. By following this advice, clinicians can enjoy this new way of communication without sacrificing convenience for security, or vice versa.

About the author: Arun Mirchandani is senior vice president of products at Vocera Communications Inc. (www.vocera.com), which offers robust clinical communication and collaboration systems.

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