Legal Requirements for Storing Emails in the Healthcare Sector

In the healthcare sector, especially in hospitals, doctor's offices, and care homes, email communication plays a very important role. In many areas, email has long since replaced the post office and fax machine as the most important channel for written communication.

Since emails can contain extremely sensitive data about patients and their treatments (such data is considered to require special attention under Article 9 of the GDPR), healthcare facilities must meet very strict data processing requirements. Such data may only be processed and stored for a specific purpose and only for as long as that particular purpose requires. In addition, the data may only be stored, processed, and transferred with the explicit consent of the patient. Other articles of the GDPR grant certain rights to every EU citizen ("data subject"). These include the right of access (Article 15), the right to erasure (Article 17), the right to data portability (Article 20), and the right to object (Article 21). Hospitals, doctor's offices, care homes, and other related healthcare facilities must comply with a data subject's request as soon as they assert one of their rights.

In addition to the protection of personal data, there are also legal requirements for storing or retaining business-critical data such as contracts, receipts, invoices, and emails sent and received electronically. Although the shape of these regulations may vary from country to country, healthcare companies are generally always required to comply with them.

Failure to comply with these requirements can have serious legal consequences; in addition to fines and loss of reputation, violations may also lead to legal proceedings.

How Can Email Archiving Help Avoid Legal Risks?

Email archiving is the systematic storage and categorization of emails and their attachments to ensure their integrity and accessibility, allowing them to be effectively organized, searched, and stored over the long term. A professional email archiving solution means that all relevant emails and attachments can be stored in a way that meets any required compliance standards. This includes invoices, contracts, and other documents created during the course of medical care. Journaling, along with specific encryption mechanisms, helps prevent data loss or manipulation. Defined storage policies allow the retention periods for emails containing patient data to be set in accordance with legal requirements.

Configurable privileges (access rights) ensure that only authorized individuals can access archived emails. This allows specific user groups such as IT managers, compliance officers, and external auditors to access and review the entire archive using full-text search functionality. If necessary, the relevant data can be exported in standard formats. These functions support not only a company during an audit but also when a data subject decides to assert their rights under the GDPR.

In summary, email archiving offers various benefits for healthcare facilities. It ensures compliance with legal requirements and provides a high level of data security, but also facilitates searching for and accessing relevant information. Healthcare personnel can quickly and easily retrieve data related to a patient's history, or information that may be relevant to another patient's treatment or the processing of an insurance claim from the archive. Efficient email management ensures smooth workflow processes, reduces the workload for healthcare personnel, and also provides high-quality medical care.

MailStore Server: Email Archiving for the Healthcare Sector

MailStore Server is a valuable addition to the IT and security strategy of healthcare facilities. Our software comes with various functions to support the legal compliant storage of emails and, when used appropriately, ensures GDPR compliance. This protects you from legal risks. Ideally, backups and email archiving should be used as complementary solutions.

MailStore Server has long been the leading email archiving solution for hospitals, doctor's offices, care homes, and other healthcare facilities. It is easy to install, can be set up within a few minutes, seamlessly adapts to existing infrastructures, and is compatible with standard email systems. Focus on your core tasks and let our software handle comprehensive security for all your patient data while ensuring compliance.

At a glance, your advantages:

• GDPR Certification: MailStore Server is regularly audited by an independent IT auditor and certified under the GDPR.
• Seamless Integration: MailStore Server can be easily integrated into your existing systems (e.g., Microsoft 365) for up to 2,000 users.
• Protection against tampering: Thanks to internal AES256 encryption, MailStore Server helps protect archived data from tampering.
• User-friendly search functionality: With the intuitive, powerful search function that works with the MailStore Outlook Add-in, you can find the emails you need within seconds without having to search for services.
• Reliable protection against data loss: For example, logging provides effective protection against data loss caused by hardware failures or accidental deletion of emails.
• Faithful archiving: The emails in the archive exactly match the original and can be restored without any loss of information.
• Auditor access and compliance standards: External auditors can be granted access to the archive, and emails can be exported for audit purposes according to RFC822 / RFC2822 standards.

Source: Email Archiving for the Healthcare Industry - MailStore