The results of a recent survey conducted by Black Book Research show that 90% of hospitals and 94% of physicians have implemented mobile technology and believe that it is helping to enhance patient safety and outcomes, .
The survey was carried out on 770 hospital-based users and 1,279 physician practices from Q4, 2017 and Q1, 2018.
The survey showed 96% of hospitals are planning on purchasing a new clinical communications platform in 2018 or have already adopted a new, thorough communications platform.
85% of surveyed hospitals and 83% of physician practices have already implemented a secure communication platform to enhance communications between care teams, patients, and their families. Safe text messaging platform are quickly becoming the number one choice due to the convenience of text messages, the security provided by the platforms, and the improvements they make to productivity and profitability.
98% of hospitals and 77% of physician practices said they have adopted secure, encrypted email and are using intrusion detection systems to ensure breaches are detected swiftlly.
Many providers of safe text messaging solutions have designed their platforms specifically for the healthcare sector. The platforms incorporate all the necessary security measures to meet HIPAA requirements and ensure PHI can be transmitted safely. Text messaging is familiar to almost all staff members who are provided access to the platforms and they make communication quick and simple.
However, 63% of those surveyed said they are still facing ongoing challenges with buy-in of general mobile adoption strategies and related enterprise technology execution.
30% of respondents answered saying that even though secure methods of communication have been adopted such as encrypted text messaging platforms and safe email, they are still receiving communications every day from unsecured sources that contain personally identifiable information such as patients’ names and birth dates.
Part of the study included an assessment of cybersecurity and privacy software and services, allowing the company to name the vendors that are most highly regarded by consumers. TigerText, the market leading supplierr of secure text messaging solutions for the healthcare sector, was rated highly across the board, as were Vocera, Spok, Doc Halo, and Imprivata.
Doc Halo received the highest ratings among secure communications platform provider among physician groups, with Perfect Serve, Patient Safe Solutions, OnPage, Telemediq, and Voalte also scoring well. Spok ranked highest among hospital systems and inpatient groups, with Qlik and Cerner also receiving high ratings.
Doug Brown, president of Black Book Market Research said “Stakeholders across the healthcare industry are in the quest of finding solutions to use comprehensive real-time data and connectivity cleverly to advance patient safety, productivity and profitability. Organizations are adopting secure text messaging platforms because texts are convenient, as well.”
