Smarter hospital communication: secure smartphone text messaging improves provider satisfaction and perception of efficacy, workflow.

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 trial

Setting

Stanford Hospital

Intervention

Three inpatient medicine teams used the HCGM appli

SUBMITTER: Przybylo JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4263157 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature