Medical Staff

In the news: Santa Cruz practice optimistic about using e-mail to communicate with patients

Medical Staff Leader Connection, April 8, 2009

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If you’re an e-mail junkie like me, you may have, at one point, thought, “Boy, wouldn’t it be convenient if I could e-mail my doctor?” You know how it goes—you seek out a private place at work where you can call the doctor’s office to report a persistent cough or mysterious rash, and inevitably, he or she calls you back in the middle of a staff meeting.

E-mail would certainly provide a quite, private mode of communication, and a Santa Cruz practice is testing its viability—for a fee—according to the San Jose Mercury News. For $5 a month, patients can e-mail their physicians with common, non-emergent ailments. Some argue that physicians shouldn’t be charging a fee to communicate with patients since that is part of their job, but others see the monetary value of such a service.

Although e-mail communications offer convenience and save patients and physicians time, it is wise to consider some of the challenges that may arise from adopting an impersonal mode of communication to supplement in-person visits. For example, some patients may not be able to articulate symptoms (and some physicians may not be able to articulate diagnoses or recommendations) as well in writing as they can in person. Will patients be allowed to attach photos of a swollen foot or skin rash to an e-mail to help a physician make a diagnosis (it's not hard to imagine all the ways photo attachments could go wrong)? And let's remember that tone of voice and humor often get lost in writing if you're not careful.

Liz Jones
Associate editor: Medical staff
HCPro, Inc.

 



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