Is Texting legal

[shbryer]

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.

[keithjones]

The benefit of texting is instant access to a physician that may take hours to get a message to and a callback from! there are problems such as delayed delivery during peak useage, etc. and there needs to be rules set forth but its technology doing its job! personally i think the hospital should provide a blackberry for each position that gets handed off at shift change.

[JomoNurse]

I don't know if it's legal or not. Although I will say that I'm not sure why he would prefer to text his orders rather than just call them. Texting takes a lot longer rather than just picking up the phone and talking. Maybe he is anti-social.

[OC_An Khe]

NRSKarenRN's link is well worth everyone reading. New technology will change how things are done as well as the relationships of the profession.