text messaging med orders

[rustysflygirl]

Greetings to all.

I would appreciate any input about an issue that has recently surfaced concerning an oncology group who text message patient orders to the nursing staff at the hospital. I am adamantly against this practice for several reasons including HIPPA issues (can I be 100% sure that the message came from the MD? as the MD, can I be 100% sure the message was: 1) recd. at all? 2) Who recd. the message? 3) Prove it.

I personally feel it is a serious liability issue and a dangerous method of giving/receiving orders.

The nurses are uncomfortable with this arraignment, but the oncology physicians fail to see the problems.

There are much better methods of giving orders than via text messaging.

Their response to the concerns expressed is that they call refills to the pharmacy and give orders on the phone, so what is the problem?

My response is the same: I still think this is a serious liability issue.

Is this a problem for anyone else? If so, how did your organization handle the issue?

Thanks

[jmgrn65, RN]

how are they text messaging? is it through a service. We use MatchMD and it is authenticated, and can be used for orders. It is actually our paging system, we page the doc and then they send the answer.

It has to be a secured system.

[VegRN]

how are they text messaging? is it through a service. We use MatchMD and it is authenticated, and can be used for orders. It is actually our paging system, we page the doc and then they send the answer.

It has to be a secured system.

wow, what an amazing system. Did not know this existed. My hospital is fairly high tech but we don't have this.

[caliotter3]

Unless they are using a service like that described by jmgrn65 and the messages are authenticated, I would not trust this system. Furthermore, the few text messages that I've viewed have been so filled with typos that I still wouldn't trust them. Too much room for error and/or fraud if you ask me.