Becker's Hospital Review

22 Executive Briefing Secure Texting: A Pathway to Clinical Collaboration F rom the growing popularity of value-based payment models to consumerism, a number of trends in the health- care industry make it more critical than ever for physicians to have the ability to communicate in real time with the whole care team to improve the patient experience. Healthcare is moving away from a model where organiza- tions are compensated based on the quantity of care they pro- vide to one where they are paid based on providing high-qual- ity care in an efficient and effective manner. To succeed in this new environment, healthcare organizations are exploring ways to improve care coordination. There are many participants involved in the healthcare process: nurses, physicians, specialists, family members and the patient — and each is responsible for a different aspect of care delivery and health outcomes. In their efforts to provide coordinated care across the continuum, providers must share information and actively engage patients to improve health outcomes. There are various factors that will determine a provider organization's success with value-based payment models, the patient experience and coordinated care efforts. However, there is one thing they all need — continuous, real-time commu- nication. Healthcare communication challenges Data security is vital in healthcare, and it is also a huge problem for many provider organizations. In 2014, 42 percent of reported data breaches happened in healthcare, and there's a reason the industry is being targeted — medical data has a high value. "The value of your financial identity is minimal compared to your health- care identity," says Gautam M Shah, vice president of product management at Vocera Communications. "Every time one of these data breaches happens, it's a lot of money out the door and it's a headache for everyone involved." In addition to medical information being lucrative for hackers, a lack of secu- rity measures also makes healthcare organizations a prime target. "Healthcare lags behind similarly regulated industries in the investment in IT and security," says Mr. Shah. With the number of healthcare breaches occurring each year, that trend must change. One of the major pain points when it comes to security is the "bring your own device" trend. Vocera surveyed more than 100 health IT leaders during the 2015 HIMSS Conference to gauge insight into BYOD strategies, demands and preferences. The results revealed many hospitals are still grappling with how to manage the use of personal devices within the enterprise. In fact, although 64 percent of health IT leaders said their healthcare organizations support BYOD, only 26 percent have a platform or plan to support secure communication. Another communication challenge plaguing the industry is the inability to connect with affiliated physicians. Thirty-eight percent of health IT leaders said their organizations do not have a communication solution to support affiliated physicians who use personal devices. That creates problems because newly affiliated physicians need an easy on-ramp to collaborate with the broader team, and health systems need revenue gen- erating patient referrals from affiliated physicians. With the growing popularity of accountable care organi- zations and the focus on population health, provider collabo- ration is vital both inside and outside of a facility's four walls. However, due to the necessity to protect patient privacy and safeguard patient information, not just any type of communica- tion will suffice. "Security must be paramount" Security must be a top priority for any communications solution provider, and it is a top concern at Vocera. In fact, Sponsored by: "Patient care, safety and satisfaction are top priorities for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, so we are committed to giving our providers the best tools available to improve communication efficiencies and clinical outcomes. After reviewing existing practices and new technology tools, the Vocera Secure Texting Solution was the clear choice," said Carl Olden, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. "Vocera's Secure Texting Solution gives our providers a HIPAA-compliant, convenient communication and care coordination solution and leverages the benefits of the Vocera Communication Platform. This solution brings the hospital's clinical team and our community care providers together under a single platform to allow timely, mobile and secure communications so they can keep focus on patient care."

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