Shared-use mobile device management practices, capabilities and needs in healthcare delivery organizations: An international survey

Abstract

Objective: To understand shared-use mobile device deployment, management and usage challenges in healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs), including capabilities and unmet needs in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Methods: Online survey of 400 HDO clinical and health information technology leaders with institutional responsibilities for the management of shared-use mobile devices. How the challenges identified in the survey can be overcome is explored by examining the deployment of a mobile device management platform.
Results: Across nations 92% of respondents agreed that mobile devices are essential tools, yet only 56% had fully implemented shared-use device policies and procedures. Respondents stated improvement is needed in auditing facility device usage: 16% have no consistent policy/process for assigning devices at shift start; 46% use verbal or informal processes. Perceived mobile device benefits include: facilitates delivery of high-quality (94%) and accelerated care (51%) enabling reduced length of stay (86%); increased clinician satisfaction (94%) and reduced burnout (90%); enhanced care team coordination/communication (67%); and improved clinical application access (54%). Challenges in ease of use were endemic, including: securing sensitive information (44%); sharing of access credentials (79%); devices left logged in (74%); and ensuring rapid, frictionless access. Clinicians experience access issues, with frequent helpdesk contact (87%) for lockouts. Clinician frustration occurs when devices are unavailable (87%) or broken, uncharged, or missing applications (86%), delaying care delivery. Management issues included lack of visibility into mobile device usage (40%), assignment (48%), and applications accessed (55%); no centralized system for managing devices (39%); and time-consuming device setup (35%), with little variability by nation. When devices are unavailable or access difficult, 81% stated personal devices are used, an unsafe workaround. Substantial minorities across nations reported still relying on manual paper or digital log of device sign-out. A high mean annual rate of mobile device loss (23% across nations) ensures the negative impact of missing/unavailable devices is substantial, increasing risk of information security breach, delays in care communications and delivery, reduced productivity, shift change disruption, and increased staff frustration. Differences in responses by facility size (bed count) were few and modest. HDOs reported meaningful savings of $1.1 million per year on average by deploying shared-use mobile devices, with 92% indicating improved return on investment and reduced manual management workload.
Conclusions: HDOs reported significant perceived challenges in effectively managing shared-use devices, but recognize they facilitate efficient clinical-operational workflows and increased clinician satisfaction. Need exists to overcome substantial capability gaps to systematically manage device fleets while ensuring a friction free, secure and efficient user experience.

Keywords

Clinical mobile management / Enterprise-owned shared-use mobile devices / Mobile device management

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

None.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS

DB and RP designed the study methodology; DB, RP, SPK and GAG analyzed and interpreted the data; GAG wrote the initial and all subsequent drafts of the manuscript; DB, RP and SPK edited subsequent drafts of the manuscript; GAG and RP organized the data and validated the data analyses; GAG, DB and RP co-authored the results interpretation and discussion sections.

FUNDING

No funding supported this work.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

All authors are either advisors to or employees of Imprivata.

INFORMED CONSENT

Survey respondents provided their consent for their interview data to be used in a fully de-identified manner within aggregate analyses.

ETHICAL STATEMENT

All data were collected observing strict data confidentiality, privacy and ethical research standards. All respondents opted in to survey participation and accepted the survey terms that declared their individual data would be analyzed and presented in aggregate form and a fully de-identified manner. No personally identifiable information from individuals was collected. As a result, Ethical Board review was waived.

ETHICS APPROVAL

The Publication Ethics Committee of the Association for Health Sciences and Education. The journal’s policies adhere to the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW

Not commissioned; externally double-blind peer reviewed.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Study data may be made available upon reasonable request.

DATA SHARING STATEMENT

No additional data are available.

OPEN ACCESS

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

COPYRIGHTS

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.

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