To give patients the chance of living longer and healthier, the health care industry has embraced the latest technology trends and innovations. From surgical robots to telemedicine, the digital transformation has helped save lives. It also helped reduce the costs associated with health care services. In the American healthcare industry alone, health care technologies have reduced spending by $300 billion nationwide.
In 2017, one of the five technologies to truly make a difference in this industry is enterprise mobility. Together with cloud access, mobility has tremendously helped patients and doctors alike. Of the 80% of physicians who use smartphones and medical apps, 72% access drug information on their mobile devices regularly.
By 2018, it’s expected that 65% of interactions with health care facilities will be mobilized. This percentage is expected to further increase as the number of home health aides will rise by 70% by 2020.
Why Mobility is Performing Better than Most Health Care Technologies
For decades, technology adoption has been slow in the health care industry. For starters, some solutions may be too expensive and complex for health care professionals to use. Their failure may also lead to bad outcomes, such as risking patients’ health and financial loss.
Mobility, on the other hand, is changing the technology adoption in the industry because of the following reasons.
Fast and Accurate Patient Data Collection
Using mobile forms instead of paper-based medical and health care forms allows patients to quickly enter important information such as medical history and insurance particulars. With fields such as time and date pickers and segmented controls, users can easily select the options which apply to them. This, in turn, reduces the chances of error and ensures patients receive the treatment they need. As a result, their satisfaction with the facility and their physicians increases.
Quick Access to Patients’ Records
Health care professionals won’t need to rely on stationed devices or computers to retrieve patient information. Instead, they can use their own mobile devices to access records anytime and anyplace. This easy access is especially beneficial when referring patients to specialists or other physicians within the facility or beyond it.
Improved Efficiency
By automating health care operations, mobile apps will drive efficiencies across task-based workers such as nurses and administrators. Overall efficiency will also improve as manual procedures such as scheduling patients will be carried out automatically. With fewer chances of error as well, both patients and health care providers will benefit immensely.
Meeting Compliance Requirements
Several regulatory bodies emphasize on the need to maintain electronic health records. For instance, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act mandates public and private health care professionals to utilize electronic records to maintain Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement levels. Data submitted via mobile forms can be easily, quickly, and accurately entered into back-end systems.
Enhanced Security
Patient data entered through mobile forms can be secured by multiple layers. In addition to limiting access to it through passwords, it can be encrypted during their transit to the hospital’s servers. With multiple security measures in place, health care facilities will be HIPAA compliant. They will also be safe from the consequences of compromising patient data security, which include hefty lawsuits.
The Barriers You Should Address Before Going Mobile
As tempting as these perks of enterprise mobility are for health care facilities, there are a five challenges they need to address before adopting this new technology.
- Cost of Mobile App Development – This is a major issue for health care facilities, especially with the lack of funding. Approximately 55% of health care facilities are on the lookout for viable low-cost alternatives.
- Risks of Adopting a New Technology – It’s no secret that health care providers are reluctant to take risks, especially those which can compromise critical operations. The staff themselves may resist your efforts to mobilize operations without evidence supporting the viability of health enterprise mobile apps.
- Data Overload – Without proper planning, the information presented in the app can be unwieldy and overwhelming. Stakeholders should determine what data needs to be disseminated while considering regulatory and security implications.
- Integration with Existing Systems – For a health care mobile app to be successful, it should be highly accessible and easily integrated with internal systems. Only then can information silos and communication issues between departments truly be prevented.
- Security of Mobile App and Data – While mobile apps are more secure than paper forms, health care providers are still concerned about security the most.
How to Proceed with Mobility for Your Facility
If you plan on rolling out an enterprise mobility, here are some tips we recommend to help you deal with the challenges mentioned above.
Have an Enterprise Mobile App Development Plan in Hand
There are many things you should factor in while planning your mobile app, including which departments you will roll out to first, which devices you should develop the app for, and which paper forms you should mobilize first.
You should also take into consideration technical details such as which existing systems the app should connect to, and which data should be collected via the app. Meet with the stakeholders of your mobile app to best determine this aspect.
Consider Developing the App Yourself
There are several services that allow you to create your own app rather than have it developed for you. For instance, if you’re planning to mobilize your forms, you can use our transform Studio to create sophisticated, feature-rich mobile forms.
You don’t even need to worry about having a mobile app development experience. Transform Studio is a zero-code development platform, which means anyone can use it to create sophisticated apps. [Click here to see how easy creating mobile apps can be]
Come Up with a Mobile Engagement Strategy
You need to plan an engagement strategy to put others at ease and ensure their cooperation. Only then will your efforts to mobilize your facility’s operations will succeed.
Here are some tips to get you started.
- Pay Attention to Users’ Behaviors – Observe the behavior of your app’s end users. Doing so will help you understand how to make using the app seem more appealing.
- Tap into the Power of Influencers – Introduce the app to individuals who have more influence at your health care facility, such as top physicians or head nurses. Entrust them with the task of getting everyone onboard your mobility transformation. Influencers may also offer valuable insight to improve user experience.
- Continuously Provide Value – The first release of your app should deliver genuine utility to users. However, you need to continue improving the app to ensure lasting value. Therefore, schedule significant updates early on and deliver according to that plan.
Carefully Consider Mobile App Security
There are so many measures you can include to ensure the safety of your mobile app and its data. However, your focus should be to use a platform which simplifies security while delivering information to users based on their specific needs. Discuss how you can strike this delicate balance with IT and the people in charge of developing your mobile app.
The Bottom Line
Patients and health care facilities have a lot to gain from enterprise mobility. While this may take several months for it to effectively roll out, you can expect to see the results of the transformation very quickly.
Want to test this right away? Start by creating a mobile forms app on Makeen transform and roll it out to your staff. Not only is this a great way to get the ball rolling, but mobile forms also deliver numerous benefits of their own including enhanced productivity. Since they’re easy to create and use, you’ll see ROI quickly.
