Imprivata Announces New Research That Reveals Best Practices for Realizing the Care Team Collaboration and Productivity Benefits of HIPAA Compliant Text Messaging
Key findings shared from interviews with healthcare IT executives
Lexington, Mass., December 3, 2012 A new whitepaper sponsored by Imprivata, the leader in healthcare IT security, and developed by IDC Health Insights, “Imprivata Cortext: HIPAA Compliant Texting for Clinicians,” reveals care team collaboration and productivity benefits of HIPAA compliant text messaging in the healthcare market.
"Our interviews with users of HIPAA compliant text messaging revealed a wide range of challenges using mobile devices in a healthcare setting before deploying a HIPAA compliant solution, including native phone texting is not HIPAA compliant, bring your own device (BYOD) demands, mobile device security concerns and the fact that not all clinicians are allowed to use mobile devices,” said Lynne A. Dunbrack, Program Director, IDC Health Insights. "Our research revealed that lifting the security barrier that previously inhibited care providers from text messaging in a clinical environment allowed users, including cardiologists, radiologists, and anesthesiologists, to employ a wide range of departmental applications.”
Despite the various departmental applications, IDC Health Insights' study identified three benefits that were consistent across clinical departments and workgroups, including ease of use which accelerates clinical adoption, improved collaboration and enhanced productivity. Three clinical use cases that support these benefits were documented in the IDC report, including:
- HIPAA-compliant text messaging helped Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s cardiologists and nurses save time: When a catheterization (cath) lab was activated, time was of the essence to alert the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) team that a patient was being sent from the emergency department and needed to be prepped for the cardiologists. Nurses in the cath lab used text messaging to quickly alert the cardiologists on call when the patient would be ready.
- Ease of use accelerated HIPAA-compliant text messaging adoption among Melbourne Internal Medicine Associates (MIMA) home healthcare clinicians: Dozens of clinicians provide home care on a weekly basis and wanted to communicate with the home health nurses with whom they work.
- HIPAA-compliant text messaging enables improved collaboration among Memorial Healthcare OB physicians and nurses: Labor nurses used HIPAA compliant text messaging to keep the OBs informed of their patients’ labor status or alerted them that they were needed in the labor and delivery unit because delivery was imminent or the mother and/or baby were in distress. The nursing staff appreciated that they could see that the text message was opened, as paging lacks a similar handshake.
“The findings from IDC Health Insights’ research reaffirmed our belief that there is a significant need for HIPAA compliant text messaging in the healthcare market,” said Omar Hussain, President and CEO, Imprivata. “We’ve been surprised at the broad range of departmental applications of HIPAA compliant text messaging and expect clinical use cases will continue to grow as HIPAA compliant text messaging becomes standard practice for care teams.”
The HIPAA compliant text messaging users in the study identified best practices and lessons learned as they rolled out the application throughout their organization to start realizing the collaboration and productivity benefits. To learn more about this study and best practices for deploying by workgroup or department, download the whitepaper developed by IDC Health Insights, “Imprivata Cortext: HIPAA Compliant Texting for Clinicians.”
About Imprivata
Imprivata, the leader in healthcare IT security, enables secure access and collaboration for two million healthcare users worldwide. As the #1 independent provider of single sign-on and access management solutions for healthcare and other regulated industries, Imprivata OneSign® Single Sign-On is exclusively endorsed by American Hospital Association (AHA) and recognized by Gartner and KLAS. The company hospitals trust with securing their patient information now offers Imprivata Cortext®, the healthcare industry’s first free, HIPAA compliant text messaging solution designed for physicians and nurses. Headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, Imprivata serves 1,300 hospitals in partnership with over 200 EMR and technology infrastructure vendors around the world. For more information, please visit www.imprivata.com.
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