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Doctors Resist Electronic Consultations
Recent studies have indicated that physicians are unlikely to interact with their patients via email. In fact, one study in early 2007 found that only 31% of the physicians surveyed had sent email to a patient. The concerns behind this resistance vary. Some doctors are concerned about patient confidentiality, the inability to charge for the service, the potentially increased workload and the potential legal liability if there is a problem. At the same time, it is clear that patients want to have email access to their doctors. Recently, two of the major health insurers began programs that would compensate physicians willing to interact with their patients in this electronic form.
The Young Physicians Section of the American Medical Association has issued some guidelines which recognize that email can have some application in the doctor-patient relationship, but stress the early establishment of policies respecting matters such as turn-around time, types of transactions permitted via email, and labelling of messages.
For additional information, visit:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_9024494
For the guidelines, visit:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2386.html