Ending password pain in healthcare: What over 200 IT leaders are saying about passwordless access

By the Imprivata editorial team

Healthcare IT leaders overwhelmingly agree that passwords are holding back care delivery, but few have fully moved beyond them. Drawing on insights from over 200 IT and security leaders, this post examines why adoption lags and how advanced and passwordless access can close the gap.

Passwords are no longer a mere nuisance in healthcare. They’ve become a strategic liability. That’s the central takeaway from Imprivata’s recent survey of healthcare IT and security leaders. Clinicians and executives alike recognize that password-heavy environments slow care, increase help desk load, and widen the attack surface.

Yet despite near-universal agreement on the need to move beyond passwords, real-world adoption of robust passwordless and advanced access controls remains limited. The result is an “intent vs. reality” gap: clear strategic intent, but fragmented execution.

This post unpacks the survey findings and makes the case that advanced and passwordless access solutions are a practical, near-term way to close that gap. We’ll cover the critical statistics, the operational impacts you should be tracking, what works (and why), and a pragmatic path forward for IT and security leaders at healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs).

The headline: Consensus on importance, but lagging adoption

When it comes to advanced and passwordless access in healthcare, the following statistics frame both the problem and the opportunity:

  • 85% of survey respondents say that passwordless authentication is very important (63%) or mission-critical (22%) to the future of healthcare IT security and efficiency.
  • Yet only 7% of organizations report that they’ve fully adopted passwordless access for clinical and nonclinical staff.

That disparity — almost universal strategic buy-in but almost non-existent full adoption — is the defining dynamic. IT teams plan for a passwordless future because it materially improves security posture and clinician workflow, but technical, operational, and cultural barriers have slowed implementation.

The move to passwordless: What’s driving the urgency?

Survey respondents were explicit about the top benefits they expect to gain from moving off passwords:

  • 53% expect stronger identity security and phishing resistance
  • 49% expect faster logins
  • 47% expect improved user experience
  • 40% expect reduced help desk tickets

These are not marginal conveniences. Faster, phishing-resistant access directly reduces clinical friction. Clinicians log on repeatedly per shift, and all those lost seconds add up to lost care time and increased burnout. Reduced help desk volume and fewer security incidents translate to lower operational cost and lower enterprise risk. The survey’s expectations align closely with the core value propositions of modern enterprise access management.

Where organizations are getting stuck

The survey identifies three primary barriers to passwordless adoption:

  1. Integration and technical complexity (57%): Legacy apps, EHR integrations, virtualization layers, and shared-workstation scenarios complicate password elimination
  2. Clinical acceptance and training concerns (52%): Clinicians must trust new workflows; any added friction is unacceptable in patient care
  3. Regulatory and compliance requirements (51%): Auditability, logging, and controls remain top-of-mind

Operationally, many organizations have reacted by adding point solutions, such as biometrics, mobile authenticators, and proximity badges, without consolidating them. And the survey shows that the resulting vendor sprawl is real: 54% of respondents use three or more authentication vendors, and 16% use four or more. That leaves fragmented policies, inconsistent telemetry, and gaps in identity assurance.

Compounding that, the majority of respondents still rely heavily on passwords, with roughly 60% reporting extensive password use across the environment. The combination of pervasive passwords and multiple authenticators makes environments brittle and risky.

Why passwordless must be part of a broader advanced access strategy

Passwordless is a necessary progression in modern access management. However, the goal isn’t to simply replace passwords with a single factor; it’s to operationalize a broader set of advanced access controls that work across clinicians, back-office staff, privileged users, and third parties. These capabilities include adaptive, risk-based authentication, continuous session monitoring, offline multifactor authentication (MFA) options for connectivity-challenged areas, and self-service reset/unlock to reduce help desk burden.

The survey highlights interest in these advanced capabilities — e.g., continuous session monitoring (81%), risk-based authentication (74%), and offline MFA (73%) — because they address gaps that passwordless access alone does not.

Imprivata has developed an advanced and passwordless access functionality that is purpose-built for that exact problem set: unifying disparate authenticators and applying policy-driven, context-aware controls. As a result, passwordless authentication becomes a usable, auditable part of everyday workflows rather than a disruptive experiment.

What the next generation of Imprivata access management delivers

For executive leaders deciding whether to accelerate investments in enterprise identity and access management, Imprivata offers specific capabilities that directly address the pain points revealed by the survey:

  • Unified authenticators across environments. Imprivata supports proximity badges, biometrics (fingerprint/face), mobile push, FIDO2/passkeys, and PINs, allowing organizations to apply the right factor to the right workflow. This simplifies access workfows, consolidates policy enforcement, and reduces vendor sprawl.
  • Operationalized risk with adaptive authentication. Imprivata leverages robust AI to continuously monitor and assess the risk of access events based on location, device, and behavioral and contextual signals. When risk warrants, step-up authentication is enforced, preserving clinician productivity while strengthening security.
  • Support shared and single-user workstations. Healthcare workflows often involve shared terminals (like nursing stations) alongside mobile and remote access. The Imprivata phishing-resistant authentication factors and fast user switching keep clinicians moving without sacrificing security.
  • Identity verification for providers and patients. Beyond authentication, Imprivata supports high-assurance identity proofing and verification for both clinicians and patients. This helps ensure that only authorized providers access clinical systems and that patients are accurately matched to their digital identities, reducing fraud risk, preventing record mismatches, and supporting regulatory requirements.
  • Reduced help desk load with self-service reset/unlock. Given that a large portion of help-desk tickets are password-related, self-service password reset capabilities materially reduce the total cost of ownership and free IT and security teams to focus on higher-value initiatives.
  • Improved visibility and auditability. Consolidated risk signals, centralized logging, and AI-powered analytics provide real-time insight into authentication patterns and anomalies. Advanced reporting supports compliance requirements, strengthens audit readiness, and accelerates incident detection and response.

These are not theoretical benefits. These are real-world capabilities that directly address what the survey respondents ranked as priorities – security, login speed, UX, and help desk reductions. Imprivata Enterprise Access Management provides them all in a consolidated platform, with healthcare operational constraints in mind.

A pragmatic implementation path

Adopting advanced and passwordless access should be staged and measurable. Below is a practical roadmap that aligns with the survey’s barriers and expectations – although the precise order will vary depending upon an organization’s unique needs.

  1. Inventory and rationalize authenticators and vendors. Start by mapping current authenticators (badges, biometrics, mobile, passkeys) and where they are used. Consolidation reduces complexity and operational risk. (Target: eliminate low-value point solutions and reduce vendors from N to ≤3.)
  2. Introduce passwordless for a contained clinical workflow. Choose a high-volume, low-complexity use case (e.g., inpatient medication administration or nursing station access) and deploy passwordless options that preserve speed and reliability. Measure time-per-login, error rates, and clinician satisfaction.
  3. Introduce adaptive access controls. Apply risk-based policies that step up only when necessary (e.g., impossible travel, unknown device), keeping day-to-day friction to a minimum. Use telemetry from pilots to refine these thresholds.
  4. Expand to shared workstation and remote access patterns. Add facial authentication, FIDO2/passkeys, and secure badge/tap workflows for shared terminals, plus offline-capable MFA for connectivity-limited areas. Monitor help desk ticket volumes and clinician time savings.
  5. Operationalize self-service and telemetry. Roll out self-service reset/unlock and centralized risk reporting to reduce tickets and improve audit readiness. Tie telemetry into SOC workflows for faster incident detection.
  6. Governance and change management. Build clinical acceptance with short, focused training, quick-reference job aids, and direct clinician feedback channels. Track adoption metrics and link them to key operational performance indicators (care minutes saved, ticket reduction, incident counts).

Measuring ROI and success

The metrics of access management matter and should be tracked from day one:

  • Authentication time saved per login (seconds saved × logins per clinician per shift × clinicians) = n minutes of clinician time returned to care
  • Help desk ticket volume and cost for password resets/unlocks before and after self-service capability
  • The rate and severity of incidents tied to credential compromise and phishing over time
  • Vendor footprint (number of authentication vendors) and integration complexity — aim to reduce sprawl and centralize telemetry

These metrics create a defensible business case for integrated advanced and passwordless access platforms. Faster logins and fewer tickets yield tangible cost savings, and fewer credential-based incidents reduce risk exposure and potential regulatory fines. The survey data shows leaders expect these outcomes, and Imprivata delivers the mechanisms to realize them.

Passwordless: A near-term strategic imperative

The survey is unambiguous: healthcare IT leaders consider the move to passwordless access essential, but current adoption lags. That gap is a call to move forward with strategy and discipline.

Moving away from passwords requires more than swapping authentication factors; it requires consolidating authenticators, supporting high-assurance identity verification for every user, operationalizing adaptive and continuous risk controls, and tightening governance so security improvements don’t slow clinical work. The Imprivata approach to advanced and passwordless access is designed to do exactly that: unify authenticators, apply risk-aware policies, and make passwordless a reliable part of clinical workflows.

If your organization wants to benchmark its current position and build a pragmatic roadmap to close the intent-reality gap, start with the full survey. Download the eBook, The state of passwordless authentication in healthcare: Ending password pain, to see how your organization compares. Then request a demo to discover how Imprivata can accelerate your path to a safer, faster, and more productive access environment.