Antiquated communications technology is costing the healthcare industry more than $8.3 billion every year, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute. The report, published last year, surveyed 577 clinicians, IT workers and healthcare professionals.
Their response was clear: pagers and other outdated tools are decreasing productivity, increasing discharge times and hindering interaction between physicians and patients. On average, clinicians waste more than 45 minutes each day using pagers and other technological relics of the 20th Century.
More than half the respondents blamed pagers for time wasted. Lack of wi-fi and inadequate email was blamed by more than a third of clinicians, and 36% said they were being slowed down by the fact text messages were not allowed, or severely restricted by HIPAA guidelines.
The report also stuck the boot into outmoded tech as a major impediment to discharging patients. It takes, on average, 101 minutes to fully discharge a patient. Around 37 minutes of that time is spent waiting for a physician or specialist to authorize the release of patients.
So why are medical practices so reluctant to implement text message systems? A commonly cited reason is the potential security risk. But the Ponemon report put the average economic impact of data breaches over the past two years at $2.4 million – a fraction of the $3.1 billion in revenue that secure text messaging could generate for the healthcare industry.
Secure texting is supported by 65% of respondents, who believe it could cut discharge times by 50 minutes. If healthcare providers are still hesitant due to security risks, they needn’t worry so much – as long as they do it right.
Not all staff members will need a mobile device. For some, paging will continue to make more sense – it would be a mistake to enforce a policy across the entire organization, just because it’s a new system.
Above all, hospital leaders must protect patient privacy if they want to avoid HIPAA penalties. Assess the risk, become acquainted with the regulations, and keep staff informed that unsecured texts containing Private Health Information (PHI) could result in a penalty of $50,000.
Are there security and financial risks involved in rolling out a text message system in hospitals? Yes, but only if the people involved are ill-prepared and ill-informed. Do it the right way, and your practice could save time and money in the long run.
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