E-Mail Your Doctor?

First, the backstory. I wrote in a post on April 17, after seeing my oncologist, Dr. Lee:

What else? I gave Dr. Lee the posts I've written about cancer patients preferring to e-mail rather than call their doctors, complete with all the comments you folks had added, and told him this was a very polite request from me that they consider allowing patients to e-mail rather than call.

He was totally sweet about it, and said he would give it to the practice manager! So I will keep you posted on that.

A few days after that, I received this e-mail from the practice manager:

Hi Jeanne--

Dr. Lee met with me today and gave me the copies you hand carried to him at your appointment last Thursday. I also went online and checked out your blog and the comments that others have posted about the desire to communicate with their physicians via e-mail, rather than phone calls.

You are very well informed and seem to have many of the details as to why we cannot share PHI with you via unsecure networks at this time. I appreciate your comments and your request. I am also the Privacy & Compliance Liaison for our practice and we continue to explore options on how to achieve the required level of security to preserve patient confidentiality. We are in the process of redesigning our website right now. Please stay in touch with me, and I will keep your comments ( & those of others) in mind as we proceed down this path.

When you are in the office for your next appointment, please ask the front desk if i am here -- I would like to meet you and say hello!

Take care-

Denise
Denise Parkinson, CMPE
Practice Director
Puget Sound Cancer Centers

Pretty cool response, I thought. I like it when people take me seriously. Here is my reply:

Denise--thank you very much for getting back to me.

I do understand about patient privacy issues, and that it would require changes in your computer systems that might be rather expensive. And I appreciate your listening to the voices of cancer patients, many of them people like me with metastatic disease, who would find it so much easier to e-mail their doctors rather than call.

As you saw in the article about Group Health, the doctors seem to find it more efficient too, once it is in place.

I will definitely ask for you next time I'm in. I am really happy with the care that I'm getting at PSCC from Dr. Lee and the rest of the team. I was especially pleased to have a woman from the billing office come and find me and discuss my bill and a payment plan with me face-to-face. That was much appreciated.

Jeanne

Praise where praise is due.

Here are the posts and newspaper story I gave to Dr. Lee:

Do You E-mail Your Doctor?

E-mail Vs. Phone Tag

The doctor will e-mail you now

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.

Comments

[jessica]

WOO HOO!!

i don't even have a personal investment in this and here i am feeling all validated for you. it's like you said-- to be taken seriously is so encouraging. in a sea of paper pushers, number crunchers, voices over phone lines (sometimes computer generated!) and faces behind desks, there IS humanity!

i like this denise already.