Healthcare IT Study Finds Mobility and Convenience Key to Productivity

Identity Management Trends in Healthcare Survey 2008 Details Compliance Impact; Illustrates Heavy Use of Multiple Applications Each Day

News Facts
LEXINGTON, MA- May 27, 2008- Imprivata®, Inc., the converged identity and access management appliance company, today announced the results of a national survey examining Identity Management Trends in Healthcare 2008. The online survey of IT decision makers in the healthcare field highlights some significant trends surrounding compliance, network access, application use, and increasingly mobile doctors, clinicians and staff.

Survey Facts
Mobility and Convenience: Anywhere, Anytime Access is an Increasing Priority
Healthcare organizations are strongly considering new data access models for their employees. Specifically, organizations are looking to move away from more conventional, less secure models in favor of those which give employees both the convenience they want and the tools they need to securely access the network and applications at any given time, regardless of their location both within and outside the facility. Specific survey findings include:

  • 85 percent of respondents stated that they are looking to use tablets or mobile devices
  • 41 percent of respondents use roaming desktops
  • Nearly 75 percent of respondents stated that they offer VPN access, and 35 percent offer portal access for remote users

Applications and the Impact on Productivity
Healthcare organizations are increasingly reliant on employees’ access to and use of applications to do their daily jobs. With patient data a primary security objective, healthcare organizations need to ensure secure access to medical records and other sensitive information, making password management and application security a constant obstacle to employee productivity. Specific survey findings include:

  • 26 percent of respondents log into applications 20-50 times per day, while another 5 percent log in more than 50 times per day
  • On top of that, 73 percent of respondents claimed their organizations were rolling out new applications within the next six months

The Reality of Compliance 
Increasing compliance requirements are having considerable impact on the people, process and technology in today’s healthcare organization, which affects organizational structure, responsibilities and purchases. Specific survey findings include:

  • People: Nearly 60 percent of healthcare organizations now employ a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
  • Process: Close to 40 percent of IT decision-maker respondents stated they spend from 11-40 percent of their time on compliance
  • Technology: 91 percent acknowledge HIPAA regulations influence or strongly influence IT purchasing decisions

In addition, there has been an increased scrutiny on prescription drug orders at the state level, with states passing legislation that requires strong authentication at the time of the electronic transaction, which adds more compliance requirements and process to the highly regulated healthcare environment. Specific survey findings include:

  • 44 percent of respondents acknowledge that their organizations face state requirements for electronic prescription drug order authentication and verification today.
  • 33 percent claim their organization’s security policies would be easier to support if applications could authenticate credentials either during or just prior to a transaction in addition to at the start.

Other Notable Findings

  • 60 percent of respondents are concerned about unauthorized access from temporary or former employees
  • 44 percent of respondents report that their organizations have more than 1000 users of IT systems
  • 60 percent of respondents stated that their healthcare organization operates more than one facility

The study was conducted in February and March 2008, culminating in 171 responses from healthcare organization IT decision-makers across the U.S.


 

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Tablets and Mobile Devices

Quote attributed to John Clark, healthcare industry product manager, Imprivata
“As hospitals continue to go digital, the reliance on applications for healthcare employees to do their job each day increases significantly. The key is delivering employees secure, easy and instant access to information regardless of their location while simultaneously ensuring that unauthorized persons are denied access. Delivering on this will be a key influence on the productivity of healthcare organizations and the continuous security of patient data,” said John Clark, healthcare industry product manager, Imprivata.

About Imprivata
Imprivata is the Converged Identity and Access Management (IAM) appliance company. Its OneSign platform helps organizations safeguard enterprise information assets by enabling secure employee access to networks and applications—improving user productivity and convenience, while reducing the time, risk and cost of complying with data privacy and protection regulations. OneSign has received top ratings in product reviews throughout the industry and has been awarded numerous accolades from leading publications including Information Security, InfoWorld and SC Magazine. Headquartered in Lexington, Mass., Imprivata is one of the fastest growing IAM companies with more than 550 customers and 200 partners around the world.For more information, visit http://www.imprivata.com.

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