More than half of hospitals and health systems intend to deploy a mHealth platform, supporting at least 500 smartphone devices, in the next 12 to 18 months, according to a study from Spyglass Consulting Group.
Many deployments will be first-level efforts, supporting internal staff messaging, but a good number will expand beyond communication capability, the study found. Currently, 44 percent of healthcare organizations have comprehensive mobile communications strategies in place.
"Many organizations quickly expand the scope and usage models to include all hospital workers and workflows across medical departments, standalone hospitals, and ambulatory environments and clinics," Gregg Malkary, Spyglass managing director, said in an announcement.
The rapid adoption of smartphones within healthcare is bringing great efficiency and care treatment advancements. For example, a recent study found the devices to be just as viable as lung function monitors as today's spirometers, and may be a cheaper option for many patients.
The Spyglass study highlights four critical success elements in smartphone platform efforts: Scalability, interoperability, multi‐device support and hospital leadership acceptance.
The study also said such platforms must include hefty reporting and analytics features for monitoring and analyzing communication usage models and evaluating worker accountability.
"A real‐time dashboard and customizable reports enables hospital IT and other departments to track communication metrics against specific business, clinical and operational objectives," the authors wrote.
For more information:
- read the announcement
- check out the report