Photo credit: Getty/Trifonenko
Strengthening data security topped the priority list for mobile workflow investments in a new poll of 100 healthcare CIOs conducted by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) on behalf of enterprise communications vendor Spok.
Beyond improving security, increasing patient satisfaction placed second among their goals for improving clinical workflow over the next 18 months, followed by improving physician satisfaction.
Sixty-eight percent said they have a secure text messaging project under way, and 53 percent use enterprise mobility management technology to help secure patient data on mobile devices.
Secure messaging/communication capabilities were a top priority for their mobile application deployments, followed closely with electronic health record access and integration.
Care team coordination for treatment planning was the workflow they most wanted to improve using better tools, followed by patient discharge, internal care handoffs and external handoffs.
"Adoption of new technology requires change management to be most effective,” Spok Chief Medical Officer Andrew Mellin said in an announcement. "The organizations we’ve seen with the most successful secure text messaging rollouts first identify key clinical challenges and workflow frustrations for end users and then deploy the technology alongside process improvement and change management activities to demonstrate value to the provider, care team and patient."
Sixty percent listed physician and stakeholder buy-in as the top challenge to secure text messaging rollouts, while 78 percent cited physician adoption the greatest measure of success, followed by increased user satisfaction (63 percent), though it noted the two measures are related.
The availability of better messaging security technologies spurred the Joint Commission in April to end the ban on clinician use of messaging and text tools for ordering, but it reinstated it in July, saying it and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services need more time to work together to develop better guidance on the matter.