Here’s the dilemma. New surveys show that mobile device initiatives play a major role in enhancing patient satisfaction at healthcare facilities. Yet, more widespread use of mobile devices could lead to major security issues. The study by JAMF showed that 96% of healthcare IT decisionmakers who now implement mobile device initiatives reported a positive impact on patient satisfaction., What’s more 32% revealed “a significant increase” in patient experience scores.
The adoption of mobile devices in healthcare organizations is soaring. Consider that 90 percent of organizations are implementing or planning to implement a mobile device initiative. The pace is expected to quicken even more dramatically.
According to the study, mobile devices usage is prevalent in nurses’ stations (72 percent), administrative offices (63 percent) and patient rooms (56 percent). Many respondents are convinced that mobile device usage will further expand to both clinical care teams (59 percent) and administrative staff (54 percent), and nearly half (47 percent) plan to increase the mobile device use over the next two years.
Healthcare organizations implementing or planning to implement mobile device initiatives expressed concern around how the devices would impact security and data privacy, and a lack of satisfaction and confidence in their current mobile device management (MDM) solution.
In this year’s survey, security was cited as a top concern, with nearly half respondents wanting to see an improvement in their MDM solution’s security. Adam Mahmud, healthcare alliance manager, Jamf , commented: “Security breaches in general are growing exponentially in the healthcare industry. As mobile device initiatives expand in healthcare for use-cases such as patient engagement and clinical care, it is worrying that healthcare IT decision makers are becoming less confident in their mobile device management solution.” He added that hospitals and clinics need to enhance security of their MDM offerings to support their mobility initiatives designed to enhance caregiver efficiencies and improving the patient experience.
Almost all (95 percent) of healthcare IT decision makers believe that their current MDM solution could be improved. In addition, nearly one-third (31 percent) of respondents who are not implementing a mobile device initiative are avoiding this because of concerns around their ability to meet the security requirements. The related issue that continues to draw public attention is patient privacy. Global healthcare organizations are working to protect confidential patient data and ensure compliance with industry regulations. They are also looking to dispatch patch software to mitigate security risks. Respondents ticked off these challenges to mobile device initiatives: data privacy (54 percent), security/compliance (51 percent) and/or regularly patching software (40 percent).
The survey polled 600 global healthcare IT decision makers within both private and public healthcare organizations of all sizes in the Netherlands, France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States.
SOURCES
Access a free copy of the report at https://www.jamf.com/lp/2018-healthcare-survey/
