To BYOD or Not to BYOD, that is the Question

Is it safer in the hospital to control end-user devices, or less expensive to let staff bring their own? The ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) question generally centers on these two topics, and the idea that having one means compromising on the other. 

If hospitals issue devices, security of electronic protected health information (ePHI) can be more tightly managed, but it costs $$ to purchase the devices and maintain the plans. If institutions allow staff to bring their own, the device costs decrease, but what about security and control over how the device is used? The short answer is that BYOD options don’t have to mean more security risks. Institutions truly can get their arms around this.

 If you are considering a BYOD option, you really need a secure way to send text messages and ensure that the messages are encrypted from the moment they leave their point of origin until the recipient has received the message and it resides on the mobile device. Keeping an audit trail of messages is important, too, and helps protect against hearsay on message content and receipt.

 Is your facility considering a BYOD option? Are you in the middle of implementing one? What are your challenges? What are some of your solutions? We had some great dialogue at Connect 12, and now we have an opportunity for it to continue on the blog.

The Ultimate Boss

The first day of class in high school, my chemistry teacher walked silently into the room after we were seated, took a dollar out of his pocket, and put it in a glass jar on the podium. I was confused until he explained that his actions represented what we did every day. As his students, we were the source of his paycheck and were ultimately his boss. He ran the classroom, but we had a voice.

I was reminded of this experience last week when I read an interview in Healthcare Informatics between Rasu B. Shrestha, M.D., and HCI Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland about the 2012 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference. Although the article was a great overview of some of the top trends and RSNA discussion topics, what really stuck with me and prompted the dollar-in-the-jar memory was Dr. Shrestha’s last statement: “Above all, you have to look at what is needed to become patient-centric, and to enable the clinician workflow that can make that a reality.”

Looking at a provider’s workflow and thinking “What can we change here to improve the patient experience?” is something I do on a daily basis. Communication is a large component of any clinician’s workflow; it takes time to gather information about a patient from the EMR, colleagues, lab and imaging test results, verbal and text-based conversations, and personal observations…. Finding solutions that can make these tasks more efficient is a win. Providers run the treatment plans, but saving a little time on communications means having more time to listen to the voice of the ultimate boss – the patient.

Conference Conversations

We all left Connect 12 filled with positive energy and hearing great comments from attendees. This year we had record attendance, and it was exciting to see so many customers sharing their ideas, experiences, and stories with each other. From the welcome reception Sunday evening to our last lunch on Wednesday, Connect 12 was full of, well, connections.

The big topic was smartphone integration. The conversation surrounding these communication devices has moved from a “What if?” to a “How do we…?” Many of our attendees are in the midst of transitions and at different places along the path of adding smartphones to the communication mix. They helped each other with questions and ideas, including the recognition that pagers remain an important piece of the puzzle. From surgeons in the OR needing to receive messages but not share their smartphone passwords, to questions of cell signal availability during high traffic times, the pager continues to claim a spot in the critical communications toolkit next to smartphones.

 I look forward to next year’s event and continuing these conversations with customers in the meantime! 

Connecting began at Sunday's welcome reception.

 

Monday’s executive panel discussion about top trends in healthcare and their impact on critical communications sparked a lot of questions and discussion.

Conversations continued at lunch in smaller group settings.