There have been numerous efforts, or at least discussions, to get hospital physicians and staff to better communicate via text messages and away from widely used but somewhat antiquated pagers. But so far, it’s largely been problematic because people would use their own devices, potentially opening themselves and their hospitals up to HIPAA violations.
So how does a hospital embrace mobile health efforts? Ed Ricks, CIO of Beaufort Memorial Hospital in South Carolina, might have found a way. Ricks tells mHealth News about a recent effort undertaken by the hospital, partnering with Massachusetts-based Imprivata to develop a secure, HIPAA compliant messaging app that wouldn’t require new devices.
From mHealth News:
“Ricks said clinicians were already using their own smartphones to talk to each other, so he’d need a solution that is safe and secure and allows them to continue doing what they like to do. “They’re already doing this,” he said, “and all I wanted to do was make sure any data was secure.”
After a three-year pilot, Ricks says the app has proven so successful among the hospital’s 200 physicians that it’s going to standard operating procedure and replace pagers altogether (except in departments like anesthesiology who will still use voice pagers to keep their hands free).
By not mandating new devices and letting physicians use their own phones, Ricks notes that the adoption rate was higher because workflow wasn’t interrupted.
“He figured on recruiting five or six doctors for the pilot. Within a week he had 40, and by the time the two-month pilot had concluded, more than 60 were on board. Now there are about 360 using the app.
“They realized within days that this wasn’t about the technology,” Ricks said. “It was a workflow issue.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The lesson, he says, is pretty straightforward: Don’t just throw the latest cool gadgets at physicians and expect them to immediately sing praises.
“This wasn’t a technology solution set,” Ricks told mHealth News. “Everybody’s here to take care of patients,” and they’re willing to adopt new solutions if they improve the process and don’t make life harder.”
Eventually, the hospital may consider integrating the talks between physicians into the EHR, but for now the communication is being viewed as informal.
“We’ve decided that this is informal communication,” Ricks explained. “We’re not treating it as part of the medical record. … Some day we may change out mind. The technology piece is there. But not right now.”
