Nurses Say Pagers Must Go; Hospitals Drag Feet

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

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information say they need an alternative to outdated pagers and insecure 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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