Your question: Any way we can text operators back, or text the nurses on the floor? Often we are in meetings or some other situation where a prompt text reply would be more expeditious.
Our answer: Traditional text messaging is not a secure form of communication in a health care environment, so at this time, we do not have the ability to text back to pages. However, recognizing the evolution in technology, The Joint Commission recently made recommendations on how health care organizations could use messaging in a secure way. If health care organizations choose to begin the process of using secure text messaging, the Joint Commission’s recommendations include extensive infrastructure considerations, developing policies and auditing processes and risk management strategies for texting. At this time, given the significant infrastructure development, we do not have plans to pursue text paging capabilities; however, it may be something that is pursued in the future.