Some phone systems market themselves, especially for healthcare organizations, and for good reason. Not all phone systems are the same. One error that clinicians (and therefore clinical practices) often commit is to take the technology they use in their personal lives and bring it into their healthcare practice,  assuming that it is adequate. Traditional phone lines and cellular service are quite secure. However, additional features such as voicemail, faxing, and texting bring added risks to healthcare information. Group practices and larger organizations utilize features such as setting on-call procedures, ring groups, automated attendants, and administrator control over all phone accounts. Clients put their trust in their healthcare providers to protect their private information. Using ordinary or traditional phone lines, voicemail, faxing, and texting can jeopardize patients’ sensitive information.

We wanted to discuss this topic of selecting and understanding phone technology, so our CEO, Raymond Barrett, interviewed Doug Parent, co-founder and CEO of RingRx, a communications company that provides clinical practices with a “HIPAA friendly phone system [that] makes it easy to engage your patients — anywhere, anytime”.  Barrett is a long-time user of RingRx in his own practice. Doug Parent has been involved in healthcare communications for the past 22 years. He became involved in this area when he joined the RingRx call center that provided custom solutions for healthcare companies. 

RingRx provides secure, reliable, and feature-rich communications solutions for the healthcare community. They have built their platform from the ground up to offer a versatile service that meets the needs of any company, including solo providers, small or large practices, hospitals or business associate enterprises.

In this interview, Doug Parent explains the difference between voice-over-internet-protocol phone systems, traditional landlines, and cellular phone services. Doug and Ray also discuss privacy and security considerations, user risks, and phone configuration options. Their conversation covers common misunderstandings regarding texting and how to appropriately use texting in healthcare. Doug shares that RingRx plans to launch texting capabilities directly with clients through the RingRx app. He also describes how RingRx compares to other VoIP providers and options for integrating RingRx with EMRs and EHRs. 

RingRx is an excellent phone solution for practice of any size. You can view all of RingRx’s options and try it out for free.

Because of the benefits, RingRx can bring to clinical practices, Telehealth Certification Institute has joined an affiliation agreement with them.  In addition to a 30-day free trial, save 10% by using the "TELEHEALTH" RingRx referral code when signing up!