Email may be an appropriate method of communication depending on urgency, sensitivity and risk.

Emails will not involve clinical discussion except to clarify any minor issues arising from a recent consultation (within previous 4-6 weeks).
Dr Drummond does not engage in back-and-forth email conversations. If further questions arise after an email response, a consultation should be arranged.

Email responses are not provided for those who are not patients of the practice (those who have not had a previous consultation, either in person or by telehealth, with Dr Drummond).

Email is inappropriate for sensitive, detailed, complex explanations. Email is inappropriate for giving bad news.

It is appropriate for doctors to exercise clinical judgement and decline to engage in an email conversation. Patients may need to make an appointment to clarify any issues or concerns they may have.

Email correspondence does not allow proper clinical assessment. It is unsafe practice to provide medical advice by email without proper consultation.

Patients are advised that practice emails are not encrypted and therefore email is not a secure form of communication. There are risks to personal information using email.

Any information of a sensitive nature, include demographic and health information should be send by secure messaging if possible.

Documents with sensitive information should be sent as a password protected pdf document.

Emails are only checked during office hours Monday to Friday. Emails are not monitored on weekends. Because of volume of emails received by the practice, it may take 2-3 days to respond.

Incoming emails to contact@drumderm.com.au are forwarded to Dr Drummond if they contain information about clinical issues relating to existing practice patients. Requests for new or lost prescriptions and request forms are also forwarded to Dr Drummond.

The response to any request is at Dr Drummond’s clinical discretion.

Any matters relating to change of appointments, updated referrals or administrative issues are dealt with by reception staff.

Emails sent to referrals@drumderm.com.au attachments are saved to a folder which is password protected, with MFA required for log in access.

Clinical images are sent by email in jpg or pdf format. If sent by a patient, implicit consent is given. If concerned about privacy issues, patients should password protect the file.

Clinical images sent by the practice to another health provider are password protected if specifically requested by patient or guardian.

Images may be used to make a clinical judgement if appropriate. Sometimes a face-to-face consultation may be required because of the quality of the photos or the need to conduct an examination in person.

Emails are dealt with in order of receipt.

Any email with information which might be relevant or important is saved to the clinical record.

If an email is time sensitive patient is asked for confirmation of receipt of email by reply.

Autoreply is activated for all email addresses.

Staff confirm email address when the patient checks in.

If sending information to a patient without specifically confirming their email address, the patient may be asked to send an email to the practice, and then reply is sent to that email.

Patient are informed of the risks of using email, consent to use of email, and acknowledge this on the Patient Information sheet, which is signed by the patient before they can be seen by the doctor.

Please refer to Privacy policy and Data Breach Response Plan for further information.

Appendix
Email disclaimer (included in every email sent by the practice)

This e-mail may contain privileged and confidential information and/or copyright material and is intended for the use of the addressee only. If you receive this e-mail in error, please advise the sender immediately by using the reply facility in your e-mail software and delete this e-mail from your computer system. You may not deliver, copy, or disclose its contents to anyone else. Any unauthorised use may be unlawful. Any views expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of Drummond Dermatology.
 As communications via the Internet are not secure the sender cannot accept any liability if this e-mail is accessed by third parties during the course of transmission or is modified or amended in any way following despatch. Drummond Dermatology cannot guarantee that any attachment to this email does not contain a virus, therefore it is strongly recommended that you carry out your own virus check before opening any attachment, as we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software virus infection. Senders of messages shall be taken to consent to the monitoring and recording of e-mails addressed to members of Drummond Dermatology.