Using HIPAA compliant email for different forms of integrated care

Integrated care is a useful method of providing for the comprehensive and often complex healthcare needs of patients. Several tailored approaches are applied to different needs from tailoring to disease-based care to population care. 

What is integrated care? 

Integrated care is a healthcare approach designed around cohesive and continuous care that considers both health and social needs. The care approach is based on tackling the prevalent issues of fragmentation. The approach is often applied by the centering of general practitioners (GPs) who create care networks including the provision for a litany of needs. Specialists are often part of this network or operate in the same healthcare practice to further streamline care. 

A study by the London: Nuffield Trust provides an insight into the approach of integrated care, “It is now widely accepted that ‘one size of integrated care does not fit all’. It is therefore vital to consider the context (that is different care settings and perspectives) in which a specific integrated care initiative develops.” This is a solution to the disconnected services between primary and secondary care experienced in most healthcare systems. 

The different forms of integrated care

• Horizontal integration is the connection of various health, social, and care services for a specific group like older adults with complex needs. The model builds multidisciplinary teams or care networks to provide continuous support tailored to that particular population. 
• Vertical integration focuses on bridging primary, community, hospital, and tertiary care services to create smooth transitions and coordinated care pathways for patients with specific conditions. It is differentiated from horizontal care as instead of caring for particular populations, diseases like diabetes are used to distinguish integration. This form of care is heavily protocol driven, based on specific best practices to provide patients with consistent care at each stage.
• Sectoral integration makes use of a combination of horizontal and vertical integration efforts in a single healthcare sector like mental health. The model uses multi-professional teams across the primary, community, and secondary care to create an interconnected system within one specialty so that patients receive a full spectrum of care.
• People-centered integration uses the relationship between providers, patients, and other users to actively involve individuals in their care. This approach makes use of methods like: 

• • Health education
  • Shared decision making
  • Supported self-management 
  • Community engagement

• Whole system integration is a border form of integrated care that incorporates public health to address the needs of entire large scale populations rather than individual groups or specific conditions. The approach combines population based and person centered approaches by including healthcare with social services. 

Related: Using email in integrated medical settings

The use of HIPAA compliant email in facilitating integrated care

Integrated care requires quick and efficient interaction between primary, secondary, and tertiary providers. The ease and accessibility of HIPAA compliant email make coordinating these communications easy even with social services who often do not share the same communication protocols as healthcare providers. Email also easily carries the burden of high volumes of information exchanges allowing for easy tracking through means like archiving capabilities so that patient information is securely stored. 

FAQs

What is consent? 

Consent is an agreement to allow something to happen, like treatment or uses of medical information.

Which organizations need to use HIPAA compliant email? 

Covered entities and their business associates are recommended to use HIPAA compliant secure communications. 

When is HIPAA compliant email necessary? 

It is a necessary part of sending emails containing PHI unless the patient requests another form of communication.