Jo’s Cafe

I was looking through Yahoo! Health News earlier today and came upon an article by Suzanne Leigh from USAToday.com titled Prescription: for doctors: E-Mail. (Note: I tried to find the story on USAToday.com, but couldn’t, so the quotes come from the re-posting done by Yahoo! here.)

She starts out talking about needing to speak to her physician about a prescription and having to wait on hold and finally asking the nurse if the doctor could be e-mailed.

There was a pause. “The doctor doesn’t have an e-mail address.”

No e-mail address? My doctor practices in the shadow of Silicon Valley.

Now about here I was like “HEY! What a great idea. Why can’t I e-mail my doctor?” I am on several medications at present for my diabetes and hypothyroidism, along with pain killers for my nasty gall bladder. There was a time a few months ago when I needed the pain killers refilled. After confusion with the answering service and the nurse I ended up getting ALL my meds refilled :? If could have e-mailed my doctor, or his nurse, the confusion wouldn’t have happened on their end.

The article goes on:

In a 2002 survey by Harris Interactive, 90% of adults with Internet access indicated they want to communicate with their physicians via e-mail. But a survey last year by Manhattan Research, a marketing information and services firm, found that less than 20% of physicians communicate via e-mail.

The top reason doctors give for withholding their e-mail address is the fear that it will lead to “too much access” and they will be barraged with messages about “trivial matters,” according to a Journal of Family Practice article in 2001.

Well heck, we can understand that. And can you imagine the junk they’d get? My doctor uses the latest equipment to handle patient records. Even though he still has a paper file on me, once we’re done with my appointment, he goes to a hand held computer and updates my electronic record.

The article has several points to make about Privacy, Liability, and Reimbursement, but a study showed the e-mail between a doctor and patient can work.

Last month, the journal Pediatrics confirmed what disgruntled patients have known for a long time: E-mail can save the doctor’s time, too. Researchers evaluated e-mails sent between two pediatricians and 54 parents of patients over six weeks. They found that of the 81 e-mails generated by parents, 70 required just one e-mail response. Most focused mostly on medical questions. And far from being deluged, the physicians said they spent an average 30 minutes a day responding to e-mails. Parents, as a result, reported fewer phone calls and appointments.

In this century, e-mailing your doctor’s office should be an option available to a patient. We could get confirmation e-mails on appointments, ask a simple question on a medication script, or even ask if you’re suppose to eat before a visit or not. Maybe I’ll mention it next time I’m in the office.