A study of how the UK health sector is introducing mobile working has predicted that the market is on the verge of a “revolution.”
Software provider NDL surveyed the health sector as part of its annual mobile working report this spring. The survey received responses from 40 healthcare workers – mainly healthcare IT specialists.
The responses showed that the use of personal information management applications – such as mobile email and calendars – was “well established” in the sector.
The report goes on to predict that such applications will spread rapidly over the next three years, in what could “almost be described as a revolution in mobile usage.”
About 90% of trusts already have some mobile personal information management tools in place. However, more than half of these implementations are small, with 52% involving fewer than 100 workers.
Survey responses suggested that 37% of implementations could be of 501-5,000 workers in 2014, while 3% would be of more than 5,000 staff.
The report also predicts a big increase in mobile business intelligence applications, such as finance, supply chain management and patient information.
The survey found health was lagging behind other sectors when it came to the deployment of these applications. Only 31% of respondents said they had live projects in place.
This translated to 14 live projects spread across 11 trusts. Further analysis suggested there had been a “flurry of implementations” four years ago, with only a few new implementations since that time.
However, one third of respondents said they were planning to implement mobile projects. The report uncovered 13 projects in the planning stage spread across nine trusts.
Four of the trusts are running pilots, and five are involved in procuring suppliers to deliver the project. Community nursing was by far the most dominant area of activity.
However, there was significant planning being undertaken to introduce mobile working to A&E departments, intensive care and radiology. The report says this illustrates the likelihood of growth in the market.
Respondents saw the biggest benefit of introducing mobile working as reducing unnecessary paper and administration time.
The most common reason for projects not being introduced was cost, while the most common reason given for projects failing was the rigidity of mobile applications.
© 2011 EHealth Media.
