Is Texting legal

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One of the Doctors where I work does not like to be called and will text nurses his orders. He want the nurse to text him what ever is the problem - Like --Mr Jones in 234 had a fall and hit his knee and his head. He is bleeding from the cut on his head. I do have a problem with this as several times he will text a nurse off duty and she calls the hospital to relay the message. I complained to the DON but since he is the medical director he gets it his way. I want to know if I am right. I feel this has to be a HIPPA violation at the very least.

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Specializes in Agency, ortho, tele, med surg, icu, er.

the whole texting an off duty nurse to relay messages seems very very strange to me. Why doesnt he just contact you guys? If I was off duty and some doctor tried to text me orders I would be ****** off.

Wait I just realized something. These are cell phones? Why is he texting an off duty nurse on her personal cell phone orders. This guy has your personal cell numbers and just text you orders whenever he feels like? Sounds like bizzario world.

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It is strange to me too. I don't know why they let him do that. I would be mad too if he called me off duty and I never gave him my cell number. I have to pay for that bill and all the texting too. He should call the hospital and talk to the nurse taking care of that pt. or at least a nurse on duty. What can Ido I have worked here 16 years and now this Dr. isn't speaking to me since I complained

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Specializes in Agency, ortho, tele, med surg, icu, er.

well go with the flow. since it seems this hospital has no problem with it, honestly not much you can do. And if you do get hippa or whatever involved that could effect your carrier with that hospital and destroy any chance of a decent refference form the place.

I wouldnt be comfortable with it personally, and I might look for another job. I would insist to the doctor to speak directly to me when it comes to orders about my patient and not recieve them from some off duty nurse.

I wouldnt fight it, I think I would just leave. thats completly bizzare.

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Specializes in dialysis (mostly) some L&D, Rehab/LTC.

Tell him you don't have a cell phone...then he has to call you!

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Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.

You might want to discuss this with the hospitals risk manager and or attorney. I would strongly recommend looking for another position if you get no satisfaction. And when you leave let the administration of the hospital know why you are leaving.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

I think this is an appalling way to handle things. What sort of proof have you go that he text in the orders? He could easily deny sending the text if anything went wrong and he shouldn't be texting personal cell phones to do it. If he wants something like this then they did to provide a company cell phone, pay all charges and make sure there is some way to record the messages.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

I agree with the above poster who suggested contacting Risk Mgmt. ASAP.

Your facility's P&P probably describes in detail the procedures for transmission of orders, and I'd be willing to bet that text messages are not on the list. I would not accept orders this way until a policy/procedure were put in place, utilizing a hospital-provided cell phone.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
One of the Doctors where I work does not like to be called and will text nurses his orders. He want the nurse to text him what ever is the problem - Like --Mr Jones in 234 had a fall and hit his knee and his head. He is bleeding from the cut on his head. I do have a problem with this as several times he will text a nurse off duty and she calls the hospital to relay the message. I complained to the DON but since he is the medical director he gets it his way. I want to know if I am right. I feel this has to be a HIPPA violation at the very least.

You have several problems going on, and the physician that is the Director over that discipline needs to put a stop to it before a patient suffers. There are several issues at hand:

1. It is a HIPAA violation. The nurse, when off duty is no longer assigned to that patient, therefore, has no reason to know what is going on with that patient, including new orders.

2. That puts the off-duty nurse in charge of relaying a message to the nurse that is on duty...which from a legal standpoint...would mean that the nurse on duty is taking "orders" from another RN....that is not only unacceptable, but vastly increases the chances for error.

3. Text messages are NOT relyable. They get hung up in the system, etc.

To me, that is the height of laziness.

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Specializes in CVICU.

One of our burn docs texts burn orders to the nurse's company e-mail address after the nurse sends a page to her Blackberry.

It seems to work out very well for the burn unit, and the company e-mail address is essentially secure (I mean if someone really wanted to get in they could, but then again, you could also get into the order entry database)...

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

There are some texting systems out there that boast, "HIPAA compliant encrypted text messaging".

But, agree with above there must be P/P within the facility that supports/outlines/defines text message orders.

And, never to an employee who is off-duty.

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Specializes in Holistic and Aesthetic Medicine.

I know that legally, there is no right to privacy regarding text messaging. It's a form of communication so insecure that we don't have a right to expect it to be private. If law enforcement can look at it without a subpeona, it's too insecure for medical communication IMHO. I like the idea of saying you don't have a mobile phone. Change your number and don't share it with him! The whole thing is just bad form!

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