Eighth Annual Spok Survey Reveals a Changing Healthcare Landscape for Mobile Strategies

300+ healthcare professionals weigh in on the opportunities and challenges associated with mobile devices, security, and infrastructure

SPRINGFIELD, Va. (June 12, 2018) – Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK) and a leader in healthcare communications, today released the results of its highly anticipated mobile strategies in healthcare survey. In its eighth consecutive year, the survey explores various facets of healthcare delivery when it comes to how hospitals support their care teams with communication technology. Respondents included more than 300 healthcare professionals—44 percent of whom were clinicians—from hospitals and health systems around the country.

For the third consecutive year, more than half of the survey respondents report having a mobile strategy in place. For those organizations with a strategy, there is a strong continuous improvement feedback loop between policy owners and clinical teams when it comes to keeping mobile policies current. The most popular reason for updating a policy was to better meet the needs of end users (39 percent), followed by addressing changes in clinical workflows (28 percent).

For the seventh straight year, smartphones are the most commonly used communication tool, in use at 74 percent of the facilities. Wi-Fi phones (69 percent), onsite pagers (56 percent), tablets (54 percent), and wide-area pagers (45 percent) are also popular. “Organizations continue to support a variety of devices, underscoring the importance of having a healthcare communication platform like Spok Care Connect® that can message to all of them effectively,” said Vincent D. Kelly, chief executive officer of Spok, Inc.

Although there was a 19 percent year-over-year increase in security team involvement for policy enforcement, the results indicate room for improvement when it comes to overall adherence to these strategies: Only 39 percent indicated policies are enforced extremely well and consistently, meaning these healthcare organizations may be vulnerable to security issues.

Notably, for 2018 there was a decrease in the number of organizations using secure texting; only 41 percent indicated having a solution in place (representing a four-year low). Because of this, it is not surprising that 32 percent said implementing this collaboration solution represents their biggest opportunity for improving mobile communications in the next three to five years.

“We are pleased to see hospitals making progress in dealing with their mobile device challenges across the board,” said Hemant Goel, president of Spok, Inc. “Over the past two years, respondents have improved areas such as compliance, coverage, and data security, but there is still work to be done.”

Those interested in an in-depth look this year’s survey results can download the full report or can register to attend a webinar, tomorrow, June 13, 2018 at 1:00 pm ET.