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Compliance with the NHS Code of Practice
The ‘Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice’ (2003) provides a description of the main legal requirements governing the protection and use of patient information. All parts of the NHS need to establish working practices that effectively deliver the patient confidentiality that is required by law, ethics and policy.
NHS managers need to be able to demonstrate active progress in enabling staff to conform to these standards, identifying resource requirements and related areas of organisation or system change.
Eliminate the risk of losing faxes
Considerations for safe havens for faxed documents should ensure the likelihood of lost faxes is eliminated throughout the organisation. Using fax machines is inadequate, even if they are under lock and key as it is very difficult to ensure that every fax machine within the organisation remains secure at all times.
Ensure readable quality of faxed documents
Because of the threat of network security and the lack of reliable encryption techniques, NHS guidance is not to use Internet e-mail where patient-identifiable information is transmitted by electronic means. Furthermore, the ‘Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice’ guidelines stipulate that patient records should be readable on any copies, including paper copies and faxes. Fax machines can be inadequate for this because old fax hardware with poor quality or damaged scanners can compromise image quality.
Enable `individual` access control
The ‘Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice’ mandates that when handling electronic records that staff must not share logins with other people. If other staff need access to records, then appropriate access should be organised for them – this must not be by using others’ access identities. The “lock and key” approach to restricting access to patient confidential information transmitted on manual fax machines is inadequate and cannot guarantee that faxes that have been sent and received on a manual fax machine remain confidential.
Support best practice
Zetafax fax software solutions give healthcare organizations an easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy and affordable way to ensure compliance with the NHS Code of Practice and recommendations of the Caldicott report, streamline business processes and reduce administrative costs.
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