E-Mail Policies

Introduction: E-mail is one of several options available for doctor-patient communication. E-mail sends written messages through the internet. The main advantage of E-mail is convenience. Each person can read and respond to their E-mail at a time convenient to him or her. The main disadvantages are a potentially slow response time and a potential lack of privacy. All E-mail communication will be placed into your medical record and treated like the other information contained in your record.

Policies: Patients of The Family Doctors Office have the option of communicating with Dr. Carder by E-mail. Prior to doing this, you need to read through this policy sheet carefully and sign it below. First of all, you must always include your full name in any E-mail messages. Many E-mail programs don't automatically include your name so you must be sure to include it.

Occasionally, E-mails get lost while traveling between the sender and the recipient. Dr. Carder's E-mail program sends an automatic notice back to you when your E-mail arrives in his mail box. If you don't receive this notice, then Dr. Carder probably did not receive your E-mail and you should send it again. Similarly, Dr. Carder's E-mails will arrive with a request for a return receipt. Dr. Carder will only know that you have received his E-mail if you send the receipt back to him. It generally takes 2-3 business days for Dr. Carder to answer E-mails. If this is too long for you to wait for an answer, then please call the office at 816-415-2999. If Dr. Carder's response will take longer than normal due to something like vacation, the automatic notice will let you know.

E-mail is only appropriate for certain types of doctor-patient communication. Specifically, E-mail is useful for fairly simple, non-urgent questions. One example of an appropriate E-mail question is asking if an over the counter medicine is OK to take with your prescription medications. Another example is asking about a news story that seems to say one of your medications is dangerous. Please do not use E-mail for standard medication refill requests. You will get a faster response if you have your pharmacy fax a refill request to the office instead. You can use E-mail to request a paper prescription to be mailed to you, but expect this to take several days.

Dr. Carder has the exclusive right to decide what is and is not appropriate for E-mail. If Dr. Carder decides that your question is not appropriate for E-mail, you will be informed. This will generally be by E-mail but may be by phone or some other method.

Confidentiality: Dr. Carder is the only one who will read E-mails received at the "carder@thefamilydoctorsoffice.com" E-mail address. Sometimes, other members of the other office staff may become involved in answering your question. For example, Dr. Carder may ask one of the other staff members to look up some information to help answer your question. A copy of any E-mail messages send by either you or Dr. Carder will be placed into your permanent medical record.

E-mail messages travel through the internet. This means that the message is passed along a series of computers a bit like a bucket brigade. It is possible for someone to read the E-mail as it passes between computers. This is very unlikely, but it is possible. So, don't put anything into an E-mail that you feel must remain absolutely confidential between you and the doctor. A good "rule of thumb" is don't discuss anything by E-mail that you would not want to discuss on a cell phone in a crowd of strangers. It is possible to use a code to encrypt E-mails and make them unreadable. This is more complicated than standard E-mail, however. If you wish to find out about E-mail encryption, ask one of the staff for more information about this.

If you have any questions about these policies, please ask Dr. Carder or one of the other office staff.  If you feel that you understand all of these policies and you would like to add E-mail to the ways you communicate with the doctor, then print this page out, sign and date below and return this form to one of the office staff.

Signed _____________________________________________

Date _______________________