Smarter hospital communication: secure smartphone text messaging improves provider satisfaction and perception of efficacy, workflow.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Though current hospital paging systems are neither efficient (callbacks disrupt workflow), nor secure (pagers are not Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA]-compliant), they are routinely used to communicate patient information. Smartphone-based text messaging is a potentially more convenient and efficient mobile alternative; however, commercial cellular networks are also not secure.Objective
To determine if augmenting one-way pagers with Medigram, a secure, HIPAA-compliant group messaging (HCGM) application for smartphones, could improve hospital team communication.Design
Eight-week prospective, cluster-randomized, controlled trialSetting
Stanford HospitalIntervention
Three inpatient medicine teams used the HCGM application in addition to paging, while two inpatient medicine teams used paging only for intra-team communication.Measurements
Baseline and post-study surveys were collected from 22 control and 41 HCGM team members.Results
When compared with paging, HCGM was rated significantly (P?ConclusionsSmartphone-based, HIPAA-compliant group messaging applications improve provider perception of in-hospital communication, while providing the information security that paging and commercial cellular networks do not.
SUBMITTER: Przybylo JA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4263157 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Smarter hospital communication: secure smartphone text messaging improves provider satisfaction and perception of efficacy, workflow.
Przybylo Jennifer A JA Wang Ange A Loftus Pooja P Evans Kambria H KH Chu Isabella I Shieh Lisa L
Journal of hospital medicine 20140811 9
<h4>Background</h4>Though current hospital paging systems are neither efficient (callbacks disrupt workflow), nor secure (pagers are not Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA]-compliant), they are routinely used to communicate patient information. Smartphone-based text messaging is a potentially more convenient and efficient mobile alternative; however, commercial cellular networks are also not secure.<h4>Objective</h4>To determine if augmenting one-way pagers with Medigram, ...[more]
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