TA readers are very aware that smartphones are both a boon and a challenge to manage for HIT in the healthcare environment, whether in the hospital or home care/long-term care setting: secure integration, meeting HIPAA and Joint Commission (US) requirements and that messages are delivered reliably. This short, free white paper from a supplier in the field, Amcom Software, is written in non-technical language (so even the CFO can understand it) and has only six points to consider:
- Smartphone use is exploding exponentially in hospitals–this trend is not going away
- SMS (text) via a smartphone service provider’s website is NOT suitable for mission-critical communications. This one surprised Ed. Donna because text is fast and read quickly. Reasons why not: user groups have multiple plans and one text may not cover all quickly or easily, thus prone to error; ‘fire and forget’ means no centralized audit trail; escalation (to next available person) is not available.
- An integrated messaging system is essential
- The world of smartphones is heterogeneous – it’s impossible to support one brand (Ed.–part of the problem in creating an enterprise solution)
- Smartphone applications should offer an improved audit trail (this is a MUST)
- Redundancy and escalation are critical (ditto)
Six Things Hospitals Need to Know About Supporting the Adoption of Smartphones (free, but registration required)