eSignature Implications Explained

Overview

When documents are eSigned in InfraWare 360, it is reasonable to ask what that means. 

For example, risk management professionals responsible for ensuring their organizations comply with legal and regulatory requirements would certainly not be comfortable with a medical transcriptionist possessing a copy of a physician's signature and then applying that to the end of the document that they transcribe.  Signing physicians (or other document authors) are ultimately responsible for the content of the document, and if the document is signed without their review or express consent, the integrity of that responsibility would break down.

In InfraWare, here is what an eSigned document involves:

• First, a newly transcribed document is stored without the signature.  Only a field (placeholder) is inserted into the document from the template.  If a document is viewed or downloaded prior to eSign taking place, the signature will be missing and, in most cases, text will indicate that the document is unsigned.

• The author, or their authorized representative if allowed by the established workflow rules (eSign Proxy settings), must login to the Secure Web Portal with their unique username and password.

• That person must load the document into the visible screen where it can be read.

• That person must click to proactively accept the document and eSign it.

• No batch or mass eSigning is supported.

• The eSign event is recorded and logged in the document's audit trail along with the date and time of the action and the identity of the logged-in user.  The date and time can optionally be made to display on the document as part of the signature if the template field is configured that way.

Once the document has been proactively eSigned, it is routed to a server on the InfraWare secure datacenter network where the electronic signature (either text, or image or both) is inserted into the document at the field position.  Once that has occurred (just seconds) the document can be downloaded, printed or otherwise routed and will contain the signature assuring that the eSign process has taken place.