While municipal and healthcare organizations have found significant value in SMS, or text messaging, some of these groups may actually be breaking the law. How? By violating federal privacy laws such is HIPAA, which governs the protection of patient medical records.
While chances are they certainly don't mean to violate anyone's privacy, the consequences could be steep. Every violation of privacy laws can result in significant fines.
Some organizations are aware of this, and are taking steps to add security features to their SMS functionality. Medical answering service call center Total Connections in Framingham, Mass. – which offers call services to EMT, healthcare and law enforcement organizations – was one of these organizations. The company recently chose OnPage for secure assured messaging to meet security requirements.
“OnPage gives us the reliability, security and intensity of a traditional pager, without the high infrastructure, hardware acquisition, monthly services costs or need to carry another device,” said Bill Campbell, President and Founder of Total Connections in a press release. “But most importantly, messages sent with OnPage are secure and always get through. And we can prove that, if necessary, in a court of law with OnPage’s delivery confirmation notification, which is sent to our dispatchers after each message.”
With OnPage, Total Connections has ensured the security of emergency messages, while reducing the cost of paging services, and can now guarantee that client messages were received and read. OnPage currently supports Apple iOS 5, BlackBerry 7 OS and Android.
For more information about the company's solutions, visit www.onpage.com.
Edited by
Braden Becker
