Watch for PHI in the email subject line

Frank Ruelas (francisco.ruelas@dignityhealth.org) is a Facility Compliance Professional with Dignity Health in Phoenix.

Email is a vital tool that we constantly use to communicate with others. It is so easy to use email to send a message to one person or to one hundred people with just a few keystrokes or a few clicks of our mouse. For this reason, we also need to be careful that we safeguard protected health information (PHI) that we send using email according to our organization’s policies and procedures. This month’s Security Awareness Suggestion (SAS) provides us a reminder on an all too common occurrence that can undermine our otherwise effective attempts to comply with HIPAA when sending email.

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