Does your contact list put you in breach of GDPR?

A contact list is normally used to send communications to the patients in the list. However, unless you cater to the new criteria for GDPR you could be breaching the rules when you send a mass communication.

This is because when you create a normal contact list it may not be obvious whether it includes or excludes patients who have recorded that they do not want to receive business communications, patients who have not specified a preference, and patients who have opted in. One solution is to create different Contact Lists that clearly differentiate between those patients.

To comply with GDPR, practices should only send marketing type communications to patients who have explicitly opted to receive those communications. They should not send to patients who have explicitly opted out, or who have not made any choice.

Create a Contact List for patients WITH RESTRICTIONS on Product and Service Information or Promotion

For patients who have NOT explicitly opted in.

(You can follow a similar procedure for patients without restrictions (opted-in)).

From the menu bar select Administration > Contact Lists... and then proceed as follows:

1. In the Contact Lists screen click the Create List button in the bottom right

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2. In the Create Contact List screen click the select Patients button (or select CTRL+L)

3. In the View Query Templates window, click +1 to open the Add Query Template window.

4. Type a Description.

5. Click the Insert patient selection button (or select CTRL+I)

6. In the Edit Patient Selection window, select any of the queries that you need to build your contact list. Once you have set up your contact list to capture a certain group of patient you now you need to include the GDPR-compliant element of the Query by including the Contact Restrictions selection.

   If you do not include the Contact Restrictions selector, in terms of the GDPR you may be in breach of patient marketing practice.

   However, this only enables you to create a patient list based on the patient contact preference, so you may need to create several lists to cover the desired communications. For example, a list with patients who have opted in to business communications and also a list of those who have not opted in to business communications.

7. Click the Insert patient selection button (or select CTRL+I):

8. In the Select Condition window, scroll, locate and select Contact Restrictions.

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9. Select OK.

   This will open the Edit Patient Selection window where you need to specify the conditions of the patient selection...

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10. Check that the dropdown menu is set to Patients with contact restrictions, then tick the checkbox for the Product & Service Information or Promotion restriction.

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    i.e. this configuration identifies those patients, from a pool of all patients, who have a restriction set on product and service information or promotion (they either have no specified preference or they have deliberately opted out).

    To specify opted in patients you would select the Patients without (without restriction) option from the dropdown menu.

11. Click OK.

    The Add Query template window will now display your chosen conditions and the contact restrictions option.

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12. Select OK to return to the original Create Contact List window.

13. Tick the checkbox if you intend using this Contact List for appointment booking.

14. Select OK.

    You will see a confirmation prompt, listing the number of patients that will be contained in this list:

15. Select Yes to create the Contact List or No if you do not want to create it.

16. If you select Yes, the contact list of patients will display:

17. To check the validity of your Contact List, open the Patient Details tab for one of these patients, click Preferences, and check that the patient has either opted out of Product &Service Information or Promotion, or has not specified a preference:

Create a Contact List for patients WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS on Product and Service Information or Promotion

For patients who have explicitly opted in.

Repeat the above procedure, but type a different Description and select Patients without:

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