Mobile health is becoming more mainstream in how hospitals will deliver care going forward and patients, it seems, want more of it.

But there are challenges for hospitals, not the least of which are financial and patient privacy issues, according to a new survey of 1,555 hospital executives by mobile services company Zebra Technologies Corp.

Hospitals are already big users of mobile healthcare inside the hospital and patients are more willing to connect with their health systems and providers and share personal data through wearables, the study found. Today, 65% of nurses and 51% of doctors, respectively, use a mobile device as a clinical care tool. 42% of pharmacies do as well.

But by 2022, 98% of doctors, 97% of nurses and 96% of pharmacists inside a hospital will be giving care that involves the use of some mobile or wireless device including handheld mobile computers, tablets, cordless barcode scanners and mobile printers. “Nearly all hospitals estimate that mobile devices will be used at the bedside by nurses and physicians by 2022, but also increasingly by other members of the care team such as pharmacists, lab technicians, radiologists and patient transport professionals,” the survey says.

Patients expect to use more mobile devices in getting care both inside the hospital and at home. The Zebra survey says 77% of hospitals say their patients felt positive about clinicians using mobile devices while delivering care and 95% of patients say they are willing to share their personal health metrics from wearables with their hospital providers. 57% of patients also currently are using wearables to track health metrics.

“Society’s adoption of technology is driving the digitization of hospital services.” The Zebra survey says. “As a result, patients are taking greater advantage of services like telehealth to help limit the number of hospital visits.”

The increased use of mobile devices inside the hospital is making an impact on improving patient care. For example, 96% of nurses expect to have access to predictive analytics about patients via their mobile device with five years as one new tool to provide better care. 61% and 55%, respectively, hospital executives also say mobile technology helps with reducing medical administration errors and patient care costs.

“Hospitals are already realizing gains in productivity by outfitting key personnel with mobile devices,” the survey says. “The digital hospital of the future won’t just be more efficient, but it will also deliver better care, be more affordable and more deeply engage patients in their treatment and recovery.”

Despite the rosy outlook for mobile healthcare, hospitals do face barriers in making mobility technology more ubiquitous. Zebra didn’t break out specific numbers for barriers facing hospitals but a lack of data security for mobile devices, budgeting the money and finding enough qualified staff to implement more mobile healthcare were listed by hospital executives as their biggest challenges.

“Both nurse managers and information technology executives see patient privacy concerns as well as a lack of adequate information technology and health information systems as obstacles to attaining organizational approval to implement clinical mobility,” the survey says.

Other key findings include:

• By 2022, 91% of nurses are expected to access electronic health records, medical and drug databases (92%), and lab diagnostic results (88%) using a mobile device.
• 7 in 10 nurse managers credit clinical mobility with improving staff communication and collaboration as well as the quality of patient care, while 64%  of information technology managers identify nurse-to-physician communications as a top area for improvement.
• By 2022, 98% of information technology managers expect predictive analytics and early notification for life-threatening conditions, such as sepsis and hospital-acquired infection, will be sent to clinicians’ mobile devices.

“The sheer number of nurses and IT managers that replied to our survey to say how much mobility has improved their work speaks to a clear trend of better mobile solutions adoption in healthcare,” says Zebra Technologies global healthcare practice lead Chris Sullivan. “The fact that patients themselves are encouraged and enthusiastic about mobility shows it has a growing association with receiving the best standard of treatment.”

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