Case Study: Ringgold County Hospital achieves HIPAA-compliant secure messaging and faster patient care with DrFirst Backline

Critical Access Hospital Uses Secure Messaging to Enhance Patient Safety

Ringgold County Hospital, a 16-bed critical access facility in Mt. Ayr, Iowa, faced growing risk from clinicians using personal text messaging to share patient images and updates—behavior that could expose protected health information and fall short of documentation and HIPAA requirements. Leadership sought an affordable, easy-to-use secure messaging solution that would integrate with their McKesson Paragon system and support timely clinical communication without compromising privacy.

Ringgold implemented DrFirst’s Backline across the organization, enabling HIPAA-compliant texting, image sharing, group and patient-centered chats, and integration with Paragon. Use cases such as instant lab result notifications, routed therapy orders, and secure image transfer (which prevented repeat x-rays) sped care, ensured patients were properly identified, and produced timestamped, auditable records—improving coordination and patient safety.

Ringgold County Hospital

Carrie Main

Director of Health Information Systems