[Bump]

Anyone care to comment?


--- In hipaaems@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Kelly" <cfems@...> wrote:
>
> Many of you may have seen this from JEMS.com:
>
>
http://www.jems.com/news_and_articles/articles/Anatomy_of_Florida_Photo_\
> Controversy.html
>
> I am interested in hearing views on this, first on the subject of the
> taking of the pictures (forget the e-mailing of them for a moment).
> Let's accept his premise that the purpose was as an "investigative and
> educational tool." Was it appropriate to take them? Do you have a
> policy on the taking of digital pictures on EMS calls? Are members
> allowed to take them with their personal cameras? Department-issued
> cameras only? If pics are allowed, how do you manage their privacy and
> security from a HIPAA perspective?
>
> More clear-cut (presumably) is that he shouldn't have e-mailed them.
> This case demonstrates one reason: After you e-mail something you have
> no control over it; there is no way to restrict who and to how many
> others the intended recipients forward it to. In addition, you can't
> control the security of the servers it resides on, for years perhaps.
> Our philosophy of e-mail is that it is inherently insecure, and we
> forbid the e-mailing of PHI except in a password-protected or encrypted
> form.
>
> Others?
>
> Jim
>