Secure Chat coming to Epic on Wednesday!

Secure Chat will go live in Epic tomorrow, September 4!

With Secure Chat, you can communicate quickly and safely with your colleagues by sending secure instant messages within Hyperspace OR from your mobile device. You will be able to send general messages or associate them with a specific patient (PHI).

IMPORTANT: Secure messaging is not a substitute for clinical decision making, official documentation, or orders in the electronic health record. However, CMS has clarified that text messaging patient information among members of the health care team is permissible IF accomplished through a secure platform (i.e., Secure Chat in Epic).

Before using Secure Chat, please note:

• Messages sent via Secure Chat are not part of the legal medical record; however, they may be discoverable. Messages in Secure Chat expire after 72 hours of being sent. When clinical images are intended to become part of the legal medical record, the Epic mobile applications Haiku, Canto, or Rover are the preferred mechanism for photo capture.
• Before using Secure Chat, you must verify verbally that the recipient has access to, and wants to receive, Epic Secure Chat messages. When using Secure Chat for the first time with another provider, the users must identify that they are both using secure chat. Please see UMMC's Secure Chat Policy for more information on UMMC's guidelines for using Secure Chat.

For all of the details on using Secure Chat, please take a look at our Secure Chat Overview and Policy.