COVID-19 Other Info

In trying to assist our members with various issues that may arise during the COVID-19 outbreak we are compiling as list of issues/questions that members have made us aware of.  Please review for some important items.

FAXing prescriptions:

Where possible, please FAX prescriptions to pharmacies so that personal contact and wait times at the pharmacies are kept to a minimum.

Mass emails to patients with general information:

It is possible that some physicians will be sending mass emails to patients with instructions about how to reach them during this time, or to provide advice about virtual appointments.

All mass emails MUST utilize the blind carbon copy (BCC) function such that the recipients are unknown to each other.

It has come to the attention of the College that problems may exist when using Microsoft’s Windows Mail program to send mass emails originating from a web based email address (eg Yahoo or Gmail accounts). The BCC function of the web based email may not be compatible with Windows Mail, resulting in all recipients being listed in the “To” category. The result is that all recipients will see the names and emails of everyone despite the intention for recipients to be blinded.

To prevent this potential breach of PHIA, you should first send a test email to ensure that BCC recipients remain blinded before sending any mass emails from your account.