Here is where you will find the link for your clinic’s medical record request form. You can put this link on your website for your clients to request medical records. This link does not expire. The records can be emailed or texted to them.
To learn more about medical records requests, read the section titled “Copies of Medical Records””
Requirements to Use This Feature
It is required that the clinic have three things in order to use this feature.
1. *A texting phone number *setup. You set this number up in Settings > Call & Text Add On. Read more about setting that up here.
2. An email used to set up your clinic in Clinic HQ.
3. At least one take home document tagged as such in Templates. You tag the document here in the template.
Tagging a document as a take home paperworkOnce all required pieces of the puzzle are input, the link will be revealed to put on your site.
You can put a link on your website such as “Medical Records” and copy and paste the HQ link there. Or you can put a button on your website for Medical Records. You can do a google search for images for buttons that say Medical Records. Once the link is revealed it will look like this:
Example of Medical Records Request LinkHow Does It Work for When You Have More Than One Clinic?
You will have the same link for all clinics. The one link represents all of your clinics. No matter which of your clinics the patient was treated at, it will pull the medical records from any of your clinics.
Each profile must have Call/Text Add-on enabled.
If one of your clinics does not have the setup complete, you will see an alert for what needs to be completed before the URL is provided.
A notice will be provided if setup is not complete.Is This a Secure Feature?
This feature uses two-factor authentication. Here’s what there is to know about the security you use to provide medical records.
Multi-factor authentication can use three ways to identify a person and provide access to a website or, in this case, access to a pet’s medical record. There are three types of authentication: knowledge-based (something the person knows), possession-based (something the person has) and inheritance base (something you are, biometric). The most robust security protocols use at least two of these methods to verify the person is who they say they are.
The Medical Records Request feature uses two-factor authentication. We use a piece of information the person knows and something the person possesses. The first factor, something the person knows, can either be a cell phone or email address on their account. To put in this piece of information, the client must know a cell phone or email address residing within your clinic’s database of information.
The eligible accounts are owned pets, not volume client pets. So, to get past the first layer of security, they must put in a cell phone or email address that meets the following requirements:
1. Be a correct cell phone number or email match to a public client profile in your clinic’s database.
2. Belong to a client account that has an owned pet. Patients belonging to volume clients will not be searched for a match and are therefore ineligible to get to the next factor authentication.
3. Have an animal associated with the account that has received a service and is in checked-out status.
In summary, they must provide knowledge of a cell phone or email existing in your clinic’s database for an owned pet (not volume client) that has been checked out. If the client can input a correct cell phone number or email that exists in your database for an owned pet that has been checked out, then the first burden of proof is met. This verifies the requester knows this privately owned pet received services at your clinic, and they know a piece of information associated with the client profile.
It would be impossible for a hacker to enter random phone numbers and gain access because the hacker would have to know that this privately owned pet received a service at your clinic, and they would have to know the correct cell or email associated with the pet. A hacker could not simply enter a random phone number and gain access. It has to be a phone number or email currently on file for a privately owned pet. We authenticate that number or email by checking it against your database of owned, checked-out animals. If the information does not match, it is impossible to move to the next layer of authentication.
The second authentication factor is one of possession. A six-digit code is texted or emailed to the cell/email on the client’s profile. The client must have physical access to the phone or the email account within ten minutes of requesting the authentication code. The code expires after ten minutes. This satisfies the possession authentication.
The most significant security threat with this feature is perhaps not so much a hacker but someone a client knows semi-well or someone who holds a grudge against a client and is intent on looking up the client’s pet’s medical record to gain a piece of information about them – presumably their address.
In this scenario, let’s say it’s an ex-husband who would like his ex-wife’s current address. He knows his ex-wife took the pet to your clinic for a spay/neuter. He also heard that a pet’s medical records could be looked up on your website, and he got the idea to go to your site, look up her pet’s medical record and get her address. He would go to your site, type in her cell phone number, and a secret code is immediately texted to her cell phone. Since she has her cell phone in her possession (and he does not), he could never get past the next layer of authentication – entering the six-digit code. Alternatively, he could email a code to her email. Presuming he has not hacked into her email account, and so he can never receive the code.
But what if he has hacked into her email account? If he has hacked into her account, couldn’t he just email your clinic and ask for the pet’s medical records? And you’d send them?
If he hacked into her email account, he likely already has access to her address through numerous other sources easily found in her email. However, it would be possible if he stole her phone or hacked into her email and in that ten-minute span, went to your website and requested her pet’s medical records to get past the second authentication factor.
What does the criminal have access to if the two-factor authentication is feloniously breached? They would already know the client’s cell phone or email address. The other two pieces of critical information would be the client’s name and address. The rest of the information in the pet’s medical record pertains to the animal, such as the pet’s name, weight and breed, which would not be precious information to a criminal.
In thinking about the process of providing medical records to clients, the two-factor method used in the Medical Record Request tool is perhaps a more, or at least equally secure method of verifying a client is who they say they are and sending them the medical records. For example, in the scenario above, what’s to say the ex-husband couldn’t call your clinic and ask for the pet’s medical records to be sent to him. He could simply say, “I need a copy of Jaxson’s medical record. The account is under my wife’s name, but he’s our dog.” Or have his new girlfriend call and pretend to be his ex-wife. In this scenario, perhaps your staff checks the phone number on the account and the animal’s name and maybe even asks for the address on file. However, there is no second multi-factor authentication – possession or inheritance. You’re still only able to verify using knowledge-based authentication. And even if ten pieces of knowledge-based authentication are provided, it’s still a weaker security protocol than a two-factor approach that uses knowledge-based and possession based.
If you have concerns about the security of this feature, we encourage you to assess how you currently provide medical records to your clients. Suppose you are not currently using multi-authentication, meaning using knowledge-based and one other cross-authentication method – possession or inheritance. In that case, you currently have a weaker security protocol than what is offered via the Medical Records Request feature. If you currently “verify” who the client is by verbally asking for pieces of information, you are using a human-based single-factor authentication, which is inherently weaker than the computerized two-factor authentication offered here.
