The adoption of mobile devices in healthcare organizations is growing, however there are challenges with managing mobile devices and a majority of healthcare IT leaders cited security as being their top concern, according to a recent survey from Jamf, a mobile device management software company.
The adoption of mobile devices in healthcare organizations is growing, and 83 percent of healthcare IT respondents said their organization provides either a smartphone or tablets to caregivers, and 45 percent of respondents reported that non-medical staff also receive mobile devices. Thirty-two percent of survey respondents say they hope to expand mobile device use to patients receiving outpatient care over the next two years.
Those surveyed identified security (83 percent), data privacy (77 percent) and inappropriate employee use (49 percent) as top concerns in managing staff mobile devices.
Vanson Bourne, a technology market research firm, surveyed 550 IT decision makers within healthcare organizations of all sizes in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia for the survey in Jamf’s “A Pulse of Mobility in Healthcare” report.
Of the organizations who implemented or plan to implement a mobile solution, 40 percent said their main reason for doing so was to give staff access to patient medical records while on the move. When polling respondents about their top motivation for implementing a mobile solution, 18 percent said to enable scheduling appointments remotely, 17 percent said to communicate with colleagues on the go, 11 percent said to easily update patient records and 9 percent cited sharing resources quickly with patients. Additionally, 5 percent said they wanted to ensure high security levels with organizational devices.
When polled about the perceived benefits of implementing a mobility strategy, respondents cited responsiveness of hospital staff (42 percent) as a top benefit. Additionally, respondents also perceived other benefits, including communication between patients and doctors (38 percent), communication between patients and nurses (37 percent), communication about medicines (34 percent), management of pain in patients (23 percent), discharge information for patients (22 percent) and cleanliness and quietness of hospital environment (18 percent).
While 86 percent of respondents reporting that their healthcare organizations have a mobile device management platform in place, about a quarter (27 percent) said they are not fully confident in their solution.
A majority of organizations that either have, or plan to have an MDM solution cite time-savings (80 percent) and enhanced employee productivity (79 percent) as the biggest benefits of mobile device implementation. Positive impacts include easier access to patient data (63 percent), faster patient turnaround (51 percent) and enhanced security of medical records (48 percent).
While 84 percent say their organizations are compliant with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), nearly half do not feel very confident in their organization’s ability to quickly adapt to changing regulations.
The survey also looked at IT spend in healthcare organizations. Those surveyed identified hardware and software as top expenditures (36 percent), followed by IT support (25 percent) and security (22 percent).
App inventory also can be a challenge with mobile device management. While apps driving mobile productivity, apps also impact mobile risk. Seventy-six percent of respondents reported they have full visibility into the applications used on their network, yet nearly a quarter said they do not have full visibility into the applications used.
Title: Survey: Security, Data Privacy Top Concerns in Managing Staff Mobile Devices
Source: news from Healthcare Privacy
Link: http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/news-item/mobile/survey-security-data-privacy-are-top-concerns-mobile-device-management-healthcare
Published on:
Author: KI Design Editor