Spyglass Consulting has released a new report that explains how mobile devices are shaping the future of the hospital industry.
In the study, 90 percent of hospitals indicated they are making enterprise-wide investments in smartphones and secure mobile communications platforms to drive clinical transformation and improve mission and patient-critical communications.
At the same time, hospitals are upgrading their technical infrastructure to improve care quality, lower costs and increase satisfaction for patients and staff members, all of which are necessary for achieving the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple AIM framework. There is growing interest in supporting technologies like unified communications, enterprise-wide directories, event-driven communications, reporting and analytics tools as well as cross platform enablement.
Here are some additional findings from the study:
- Seventy-three percent of hospitals have developed mobile strategies to streamline communications, collaboration and computing for clinical professionals and mobile workers.
- Sixty-eight percent of hospitals use middleware to collect, manage and monitor data, alarms and alerts from legacy-based systems.
- Forty-eight percent of hospitals have created ROI models to prove cost reductions, outcome improvements and satisfaction levels for patients and staff.
Interestingly, there was no mention of how hospitals are migrating away from paper-based systems, which is another major driving factor for mobile adoption in healthcare right now. This is particularly important from a security standpoint. In a recent study published in the American Journal of Managed Care, for instance, researchers found that paper and film records are actually the most common location for data breaches in hospitals. Paper and film-based records made up 65 percent of hospital data breaches from 2009 to 2016.
The key takeaway here for channel partners is that now could be a great time to start a conversation about mobility with hospital clients. Just remember that every hospital will have different needs. For example, the report explains how many clinicians are feeling overloaded with all their different communications systems like overhead pagers, voice and text messages and more. So in some cases, channel partners may want to consider simplifying and improving technologies that are already in place instead of selling new systems that will add to the noise.
