According to a recent study by Motorola Inc. called the “Enterprise Mobility Healthcare Barometer”, more than 80 percent of global Information Technology decision makers within the healthcare industry see mobile technologies as more important to their organizations today than in 2008.
Says Vivian Funkhouser, principal, Global Healthcare Solutions for Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions: “Doctors, nurses and orderlies in the healthcare industry are experiencing increased pressures from greater numbers of patients and the need to become more efficient while still providing exceptional patient care,”
“With a vast array of mobile computing and bar code scanning devices and RFID and wireless network technologies, Motorola is addressing the identified industry pain points by mobilizing applications to provide more efficient patient care without boundaries across the continuum of care.”
The study found that respondents’ usage of key mobility applications attributed to a 31 percent reduction in manual errors. Medication mistakes are among the most common medical errors in the U.S., harming at least 1.5 million people every year. Additionally, the extra medical costs of treating drug-related injuries occurring in hospitals alone conservatively amount to $3.5 billion each year. Other commonly cited mobility benefits include increased employee productivity, increased compliance accuracy for quality reporting and increased order fulfilment accuracy.
Respondents showed increasing interest in voice over wireless local area networks, fixed mobile convergence and data capture offerings as part of their mobility investment strategies.
Surveyed healthcare IT decision makers indicated that return on investment (ROI) was the most commonly given justification for mobile and wireless technology investment followed closely by compliance and total cost of ownership. The study revealed that mobile workers within a healthcare environment utilizing several key mobile applications were able to recover approximately 39 minutes per day, which can lead to greater patient care and/or reduced payroll costs.
More than 3,400 IT decision makers across 14 countries participated in this market research study.
