Healthmail

Be careful that patient information is not 'being checked' indoctor's Healthmail accounts

Healthmail was established to be used by practices to provide secure sharing of patient data and notes between health agencies. In most practices the 'practice' Healthmail account is typically utilised more by administration staff,but the personal GP Healthmail accounts originally set up are not. However, some organisations like private hospitals and pharmacies have started using Healthmail to forward outpatient discharge reports and flu vaccine reports to GPs 'individual Healthmail accounts. So if you don't check your individual Healthmail accounts frequently, this important clinical information could be overlooked.For those who don't check their Healthmail accounts frequently.

I would make two suggestions:

• Route all the doctors' e-mail through the practice accountfrom your Healthmail account: Click on 'Settings' andthen 'Options' > 'Organise Email', then '+' to create anew rule. Select 'Create a new rule for arriving messages'then name the rule, select who it was sent to and searchfor the person's name. Select the name and click 'OK'.In the next drop down menu select 'Redirect the messageto', search for the name and select and click 'OK'. Click'Save' and then send a test message to test that all isworking properly.
• Add your Healthmail account to your e-mail client likeMail or Outlook.– E-mail address: your Healthmail e-mail address– Username: your Healthmail e-mail address– Password: your Healthmail password– Incoming mail server: access.healthmail.ie– Outgoing mail server (SMTP): access.healthmail.ieThe security settings are as follows:
• Incoming IMAP server requires encrypted SSL, incomingIMAP port is therefore: 993• Outgoing SMTP server port: 587
• For outgoing encrypted connection choose 'Auto' or 'TLS'
• Outgoing SMTP server requires authentication.

As an alternative to the above, I would suggest if the GP account is not being used that you inform your local hospital or the sender of any mails in the account and advise them to send all correspondence to the practice account.You could set up an automatic reply with this information also. After a period of time you could close the GP account altogether.

Healthlink is writing to health agencies to ensure appropriate use. If you encounter any problems please contact Healthlink at: 01 828 7115; Fax: 01 828 7160 or email:info@healthlink.ie or support @healthlink.ie