Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK) and a global leader in healthcare communications, released the results of its 14th annual survey on communications in healthcare, designed to assess how clinical communication is handled in U.S. healthcare organizations, as well as the trends, challenges, and predictions shaping this critical capability. With input from more than 150 executives, physicians, nurses, IT personnel, contact center representatives, and others, this year’s report reveals a steady evolution of healthcare communication obstacles and opportunities.
“Healthcare systems across the U.S. are navigating numerous clinical and operational challenges that can make it difficult to know where to focus their attention and which solutions to prioritize,” said Vincent D. Kelly, chief executive officer of Spok Holdings, Inc. “The purpose of our annual survey is not only to yield valuable information that can help us better understand the current issues affecting healthcare teams, but also to help guide leaders as they tackle their biggest communication challenges and start to shape new plans in the coming months and years to set up their systems and teams for success.”
The 2024 survey unveiled five major takeaways:
- Ensuring patient safety and data security is critical: Patient safety and data security are the two main drivers for adopting advanced communication technology. The number of people “extremely concerned” about protected health information (PHI) being shared via personal or unsecure communication tools increased by 10 percentage points since 2023. This growing concern for patient safety and data security is likely intensified by the rapid adoption of new tools, unfamiliarity with technology, and ongoing resource restraints.
- Tried-and-true communication devices hold their value: While specific tools supported by health systems slightly ebb and flow, the most popular and reliable tools, including smartphones and pagers, remain consistent. As long as devices are safe, secure, and enable greater efficiency, teams will likely adapt and adopt new tools while still relying on solutions that consistently deliver value.
- Streamlined cross-team collaboration and communication is highly desired: Within healthcare communication tools, the largest gap (38%) between current and preferred capabilities is a “care team collaboration” feature, signaling a growing impatience for the systemic barriers that slow down teams and delay decision-making.
- Burnout rates are improving but need to remain a priority: While 32% of healthcare workers report a great deal or considerable amount of burnout, this is down from 42% last year. Health system leaders are taking a more hands-on approach to reducing stress, but there’s still ample room for improvement.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is cause for hope and concern: Enhanced communication tools for healthcare teams (64%) and speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities (63%) are the two most recognized benefits of AI solutions, though several obstacles to using AI exist, including data privacy and security and ethical and legal considerations.
“How health system professionals operate regularly evolves as new tools and technologies are introduced, and even though workflows are increasingly streamlined, constant change can feel overwhelming without proper training and support,” said Kelly. “Insights from this year’s survey show that health system leaders must educate their workforce on how their selected solutions can enhance communication, enable faster decision-making, and improve experiences while also acknowledging and addressing any hesitations they may have so everyone can embrace new capabilities with confidence and fully experience the value of new systems going forward.”
The 2024 survey also includes specific insights into the evolution of mobile devices, the continued importance and usage of pagers, priorities for clinical communication and collaboration platforms, how the industry is addressing burnout, how health system professionals perceive AI and the future of healthcare, and more.
See more information from the 2024 State of Healthcare Communications report here.
About Spok
Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK), headquartered in Plano, Texas, is proud to be a global leader in healthcare communications. We deliver clinical information to care teams when and where it matters most to improve patient outcomes. Top hospitals rely on the Spok Care Connect® platform to enhance workflows for clinicians and support administrative compliance. Our customers send over 70 million messages each month through their Spok® solutions. Spok enables smarter, faster clinical communication.
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