Frustration and friction-free: Secure mobile workflows
Frictionless mobile device security is not an oxymoron. You really can unlock the power of mobility without frustrating clinicians (or CISOs).
Mobile devices no longer play an important role in supporting better care delivery. They play an indispensable one.
Why? The proliferation of remote and hybrid workforces, as well as greater use and capabilities associated with mobile devices, have catapulted technology to a starring position. And healthcare delivery organizations are sharply focused on unlocking its power to improve workflow efficiencies, in both shared-use and bring your own device (BYOD) environments. In fact, 58% of organizations have more mobile device users than 12 months ago.
That potential for greater productivity and efficiency is especially attractive in the midst of tight budgets and staffing constraints. But it’s also happening in an environment ripe with mobile security vulnerabilities, as recent statistics reveal:
- 40% of security leaders consider mobile devices to be an organization’s biggest risk
- Mobile-related compromise has nearly doubled in the past year
- 45% of organizations surveyed have suffered a compromise involving a mobile device in the past 12 months
Mobile access challenges and pain points
Not surprisingly, all of this has created challenges and pain points for healthcare delivery organizations’ leadership. Collectively, they face the task of ensuring strong mobile device security without handcuffing clinicians. For instance:
- IT leadership need to achieve adoption of new technology investments, while also maintaining compliance and privacy across mobile tools
- IT operations has to track and manage roaming assets, while maintaining audit trails and other usage visibility
- Security leadership must manage security policies for both enterprise-owned and personal devices in order to reduce mobile use exposure points
- Clinical leadership needs to ensure usability and adoption of mobile, while achieving clinician satisfaction and workflow efficiencies supporting care delivery
A formidable balancing act
Achieving an efficient mobile device workflow experience without compromising security, privacy, and compliance is clearly a formidable balancing act. Too much emphasis on the former can bog down clinician access and directly impact the quality of care. And user flexibility and freedom shouldn’t compromise security and open the door to troubling risks as noted in the statistics above.
On the security side of the balancing act, reducing points of exposure on mobile devices is obviously paramount, especially when it comes to patient privacy. And HIPAA compliance is obviously a big part of the ongoing challenge, along with electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). Bottom line: organizations need security and compliance capabilities built directly into their mobile workflows.
On the user side, eliminating barriers to workflows, critical tools, and information is key. Obstacles created by security requirements not only hinder usability and threaten adoption – they also leave organizations unable to optimize their mobile technology investments. Clinicians demand:
- Simple, unhindered access to information – anywhere they need it
- Communication continuity, to make sure they’re always reachable (ideally without two or three devices to carry around)
- A personalized experience that matches individual expectations, not a generic profile
- Familiar workflows with minimal friction
Bottom line: clinicians need familiar, convenient access experiences from anywhere, anytime.
The capabilities and benefits of mobile workflows
So what does all that look like? What are the specific identity-centric capabilities and benefits that support an effective, well-balanced mobile strategy? Here’s a use case snapshot from mobile device security, user experience, and privacy standpoints:
Improve the security of information accessed
- Lock down shared mobile devices between use, which ensures privacy, security, and controls access to sensitive data
- Streamline authentication to devices and applications, providing convenient access for trusted users
Achieve efficient, personalized workflow experiences
- Employ fast access to mobile apps without manual credential entry, which promotes adoption and efficiency (with the same single sign-on workflow clinicians already know)
- Leverage mobile device multifactor authentication, which provides a user-friendly experience featuring real-time access
Support privacy as shared devices are exchanged between users
- Assign mobile devices via badge tap, which ensures access to only trusted users
- Require passcode access to mobile devices, which controls access to sensitive information
- Depersonalize devices after use, which removes user credentials and controls information access during a device exchange
An effective mobile access strategy achieves the all-important balancing act, ensuring that adoption, usability, and productivity aren’t compromised by security measures. Imprivata solutions help organizations do just that by leveraging digital identity to reduce access barriers, while supporting security and compliance directly within mobile workflows.
To learn more, check out our eBook highlighting the challenges and benefits of a mobile-driven access strategy.