Patient information should only be faxed when necessary to fulfill a treatment, payment or health care operations obligation. Fax machines should be safeguarded to reduce the likelihood of inappropriate access to patient information. Faxes should not be placed in public access areas.
School of Dentistry faculty, staff and students are required to use a cover sheet when faxing patient information. The cover sheet must include the following elements:
- Date of fax transmission
- Name of requestor and facility/organization
- Sender’s name
- Sender’s facsimile number
- Sender’s phone number
- Number of pages send (including cover sheet)
- Confidentiality Notice which includes a statement regarding re-disclosure
- Statement regarding communications for misdirected faxes and destruction