Today, most healthcare organizations rely on secure communication technology to share health information with patients, other healthcare providers, and across their organization.

Exchanging health information with trusted recipients can improve the quality of patient care, help address gaps in transitions of care, increase patient satisfaction, and improve the efficiency of care coordination. It can also support compliance with public health reporting.

Utilizing a central, community-wide information exchange platform reduces the risk of communication errors by ensuring messages reach the intended destination and allowing the received information to be included in a patient’s electronic record, instead of being filed as a paper document.

Choosing the right platform

Whilst improving communication and reducing the risk of communication errors is very beneficial, there are important factors healthcare organizations must consider when choosing the right communication platform.

Secure and private

Security and privacy are paramount when it comes to sending sensitive clinical information. Electronic messages should be encrypted to enable protected communication, with standards-based security applied so that only the intended recipient can open the message in their secure inbox.

Being compliant with regional health messaging requirements such as DirectTrust™, ONC and a HIPAA-compliant Health Information Services Provider (HISP) will give confidence that the communication platform is trusted and meets essential industry standards.

Reliable and integrated

Reliability and integration are key as communication errors can result in incorrect diagnoses and wasted healthcare resources.

A cloud-based solution will enable the sending and receiving of messages securely on a desktop or a Direct-compliant EMR system. Technology that is embedded via SSO into EMR/HIE platforms will provide an extra layer of protection by allowing clinicians to open documents within the platform and email via the Direct network.

An integrated Healthcare Provider Directory service will provide a simple way to find providers and send secure health information directly to trusted recipients.

Cost-effective and sustainable

Some healthcare organizations can send up to 3 million messages per month. At the higher end, each message can cost up to 70 cents, in which case, you are looking at a significant operational expense at the end of every month. Platforms that offer a pricing plan based on messaging volume bands or per mailbox, per year basis can provide organizations with more flexibility.

Cloud-based, multitenant SaaS solutions often also require minimal or no hardware installation, potentially reducing the cost of ownership further.

Orion Health Communicate

Orion Health Communicate is a Direct Secure Messaging solution that makes it easy for organizations to send secure health information directly to trusted recipients over the internet, all while maintaining patient privacy, confidentiality, and reducing overhead for fax-heavy workflows.

Communicate is a DirectTrust™ and ONC certified HIPAA-compliant Health Information Services Provider (HISP) and secure-messaging tool (CHPL reference number: 15.04.04.2113.Comm.23.00.0.180325).

With Communicate, we don’t charge you per message. Instead, Orion Health prices messages based on volume bands or per mailbox, per year basis, depending on your needs. So, you can choose the best message pricing solution, that suits your organization’s requirements.

Interested in learning more about how Orion Health can help your organization?

Orion Health Communicate
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