Dive Brief:
- A new study by Spyglass Consulting has concluded that hospitals are getting serious about implementing enterprise-level smart phone-based systems for nurses. These enterprise mobile systems typically include secure messaging for nurses as a replacement for pages, nurse call systems and unsecured texting.
- Hospitals are bringing on enterprise-level smartphone systems in part because nurses are already doing so much unsecured texting, behavior that could cost millions in HIPAA fines. Already, 67% of nurses use their unsecured smart phones in a care setting.
- While 50% of respondents said their hospital was evaluating the new tech, only 4% of hospitals where surveyed nurses worked had already implemented an enterprise smartphone system.
Dive Insight:
Given the risk involved in leading clinical staff sending unsecured messages freely, why haven't more hospitals implemented an enterprise-level smartphone system? One thing, obviously, is the investment required. There's also the reality that hospital IT departments have rarely been busier, pinned down with EMR implementation and tuning, as well as preparing for the ICD-10 switchover and executing day-to-day tasks. But it's hard to disagree with Spyglass that enterprise smartphone systems are going to get much more popular over the next year or two.