Digital Transformation: Secure, Enterprise-Grade Mobile Messaging Mission Critical to Connected Healthcare

Anurag Lal, President and CEO of Infinite Convergence.

Digital transformation, accelerated by the pandemic, is continuing to evolve in the healthcare industry. Today, healthcare organizations recognize that digital innovation that leads to more connected healthcare is critical for organizations to survive and thrive in the post-pandemic world.

While the pace of digital transformation accelerated across the healthcare industry during the pandemic, many healthcare delivery organizations today are continuing on this journey. According to survey findings by Health Cloud company Innovaccer, just 10% of healthcare organizations said they’ve completed their digital transformation, 23% of respondents are planning to enable digital transformation, while 49% indicated they are actively working to enable digital transformation.

As health systems and healthcare providers drive toward connected healthcare that improves their business and clinical operations, they will need to implement secure enterprise-grade mobile messaging and collaboration technology as a mission critical component of their digital transformation strategies. This technology delivers digital healthcare connectivity that empowers communication, increases clinician and patient well-being and maintains data security and regulatory compliance.

Empowering communication

Mobile messaging and collaboration tools are mission critical for enabling the real-time, contextual communication that improves clinical communication and streamlines workflows in healthcare organizations. These tools eliminate gaps in the flow of communication and facilitate collaboration, translating to improved staff and patient experience and better clinical outcomes.

With the distributed nature of many care teams – sometimes located on different floors, in different buildings or in different geographies – mobile messaging solutions keep teams connected, allowing seamless anywhere collaboration. This clinical communication mobility makes it easier to share critical patient information, resulting in improved response times and reduced time to decision.

Increasing clinician and patient well-being

Effective communication is vital to supporting care teams and ensuring safe, high quality patient care. Mobile messaging and collaboration platforms work to optimize communication which can free up physicians and care teams to spend more time with patients and significantly reduce medical errors.

The increased productivity and efficiency delivered by mobile messaging boosts staff engagement and reduces staff burnout. This is especially critical today as medical staff burnout reaches crisis levels. An AMA survey of 20,947 physicians and other healthcare workers found that 43% suffered from work overload and 49% had burnout.

Enhancing communication with mobile messaging and collaboration solutions also safeguards patient well-being. These solutions prevent breakdowns in communication which are one of the leading causes of preventable medical errors. According to one study cited in The Health Care Manager, the majority of negligence cases are not related to the clinical quality of care but are triggered by inadequate communication. Leveraging mobile messaging technology that supports more efficient and effective communication, healthcare organizations can eliminate barriers to communication to enhance the quality of patient care.

Maintaining data security and regulatory compliance

The healthcare industry is one of the most regulated sectors and one of the most targeted by cybercriminals. As the repository of highly sensitive, personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, addresses, social security numbers, health insurance identification numbers, and credit card information, healthcare organizations are a prime target of threat actors. In 2021 alone, 578 healthcare organizations reported data breaches to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that impacted more than 41.45 million individuals.

Digital transformation is expanding the attack service in healthcare, putting organizations at risk of data breaches and compliance violations. This risk can jeopardize patient safety and the financial health of the organization. Consider that the cost of U.S. healthcare ransomware attacks in 2020 was estimated at $21 Billion.

This threat landscape means healthcare providers must build security into every aspect of their operations. Deploying enterprise-grade mobile messaging platforms with built in end-to-end encryption and features that guarantee compliance are mission critical for locking down business communication infrastructure and can go a long way in helping organizations gain an advantage over cybercriminals.

The mobile messaging platform of choice in the healthcare industry

NetSfere is used by healthcare organizations around the world to communicate quickly, easily and securely. The platform offers enterprise-grade features that promote collaboration and streamline communications, including one-on-one and group chats, HD audio calls, screen sharing and group video calls. Simple, secure, HIPPA compliant and encrypted, NetSfere is feature rich and NO RISK. Recent deployments and developments highlight NetSfere’s continuing momentum in the health care sector:

• NetSfere and Deutsche Telekom are partnering to deliver a compliant mobile messaging platform for Germany’s St. Augustinus Group. A healthcare provider with 85 locations, St. Augustinus Group turned to NetSfere for secure, compliant and flexible messaging that eliminates the need for staff members to turn to risky messaging apps. The healthcare provider is also using the NetSfere Lifeline emergency notification feature to keep employees up to date on the pandemic.
• NetSfere has been named an approved communication supplier on NHS Shared Business Service (NHS SBS) Patient/Citizen Communication & Engagement Solutions Framework, under which NHS organizations and the public sector in the UK can contract services. NHS organizations can now leverage NetSfere to streamline internal and external communications.

According to Accenture, “more healthcare organizations have come to terms with the notion that every business is a digital business.” As healthcare organizations continue on the journey of becoming digital businesses, NetSfere is ready to help these organizations empower communication, increase clinician and patient well-being and maintain data security and regulatory compliance.