80% of Healthcare IT Executives Placing Increased Reliance on Mobility

Published on: 6th April 2009

More than 80 percent of global IT decision makers within the healthcare industry stated that mobile technologies are more important to their organizations today than they were in 2008, according to a recent research study commissioned by Motorola. Respondents cited key benefits such as increased order fulfillment accuracy, reduced manual errors and increased employee productivity due to the utilization of mobile technologies within various clinical settings.

The Motorola Enterprise Mobility Healthcare Barometer identified that the key applications driving investment in healthcare include electronic health records (EHR) driven by increasing regulations, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and medication administration. Interestingly, surveyed decision makers also noted investment growth in asset tracking and asset/inventory management, reflective of increasing financial pressures due to the weakening economic climate.

The report also found that respondents' usage of key mobility applications attributed to a 31 percent reduction in manual errors. Medication mistakes are among the most common medical errors in the U.S., harming at least 1.5 million people every year. Additionally, the extra medical costs of treating drug-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone conservatively amount to $3.5 billion each year.

Other commonly cited mobility benefits include increased employee productivity, increased compliance accuracy for quality reporting and increased order fulfillment accuracy.

"Doctors, nurses and orderlies in the healthcare industry are experiencing increased pressures from greater numbers of patients and the need to become more efficient while still providing exceptional patient care," said Vivian Funkhouser, principal, Global Healthcare Solutions for Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. "With a vast array of mobile computing and bar code scanning devices and RFID and wireless network technologies, Motorola is addressing the identified industry pain points by mobilizing applications to provide more efficient patient care without boundaries across the continuum of care."

Respondents showed increasing interest in voice over wireless local area networks (VoWLAN), fixed mobile convergence (FMC) and data capture offerings as part of their mobility investment strategies. A larger percentage of decision makers within the Americas (70 percent) reported having a mobility strategy in place than European (46 percent) and Asia Pacific (41 percent) respondents.

Surveyed healthcare IT decision makers indicated that return on investment (ROI) was the most commonly given justification for mobile and wireless technology investment followed closely by compliance and total cost of ownership (TCO). The study revealed that mobile workers within a healthcare environment utilizing several key mobile applications were able to recover approximately 39 minutes per day, which can lead to greater patient care and/or reduced payroll costs.

The 180-bed Sands Point Center for Health & Rehabilitation in Port Washington, N.Y. went live with a mobile EMR system in October 2007 to increase the level of personal interaction between clinicians and patients. The Motorola-SigmaCare healthcare solution has significantly improved documentation, decision-making processes and patient care, resulting in increased workflow efficiencies and revenue. Sands Point Center recently was named one of New York's top nursing homes by U.S. News & World Report

"Our enterprise mobility solution provides all of the information that we need right at our fingertips allowing us to dedicate more time to delivering superior patient care," said Fran Regan, director of nursing at Sands Point Center for Health & Rehabilitation. "The mobile EMR system has improved the productivity of our medical staff by almost one hour each, and Sands Point Center expects to realize a 450 percent return on investment (ROI) over five years."

About the Survey

Motorola conducted an independent research study to measure attitudinal and behavioral decision making habits of senior executives. More than 3,400 IT decision makers across 14 countries participated in this market research study through participation with research partners e-Rewards and TNS.

 

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