http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-and-wireless/nurses-say-pagers-must-go-hospitals-drag-feet-/d/d-id/1204255
By Alison Diana
InformationWeek.com
4/8/2014
Nurses and other healthcare workers who communicate vital patient
information say they need an alternative to outdated pagers and insecure
smartphones.
At most hospitals, nurses are still required to communicate with
colleagues and doctors via Voice over IP (VoIP) or pagers. But many
nurses, who tend to be constantly on the go, are increasingly ignoring
policy and are texting from their smartphones instead. This approach
carries risks: Not only are the phones insecure, but they could also
introduce germs into sterile environments.
Pagers may be less risky, but they aren't efficient. They cost US
hospitals $8.3 billion in 2013, according to a report by the Ponemon
Institute: $3.2 billion through time-consuming discharge processes and
another $5.1 billion while clinicians waited for patient information (an
average of 46 per minutes per day).
Fed up with waiting for pages, nurses are taking matters into their own
hands. Although 89% of hospitals forbid the use of personal smartphones at
work, 67% of hospitals report nurses are using their iPhones, Androids,
and other devices to support clinical communications and workflow,
according to a new report by Spyglass Consulting Group. Hospital IT
departments know nurses are doing this, but they don't have the time or
the resources to monitor their usage. Of the 53% of hospitals with BYOD
programs, only 11% include nursing staff.
[...]
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