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Are your healthcare system’s safety and security practices protecting your patients and staff?
A HIMSS Media survey of 214 clinical and IT respondents at provider organizations reveals that current perceptions and practices may be at odds with the goals of reducing the rate of healthcare-associated infections, ensuring electromagnetic compatibility and safety, and securing patient information.
Sanitization:
- More than 40% of respondents feel their patients and/or employees are at moderate or high risk of getting sick from improperly sanitized tech products.
- The majority of respondents perceived the following devices to be the most prone to carrying infection in a clinical setting:
- 71% computer keyboards/laptops
- 55% smartphones
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43% of clinicians reported their organizations don’t have any published guidelines for sanitizing technology products like PCs and keyboards — that number jumps to 60% for respondents at hospitals with <100 beds.
Electromagnetic interference:
- 57% say that computers and monitors (and, by default, keyboards) are frequently used within 6 feet of patients.
With the close proximity of consumer-grade technology to patients and medical devices, healthcare organizations need to ensure electromagnetic compatibility and safety.
The additional testing that IEC’s 60601-1-2:2015 requires will reduce the risk of electromagnetic interference, or electrical shock/fire hazards.
When IT is highly involved in purchasing products to improve and manage sanitization practice of clinical care… The number of organizations with published guidelines grows to 76%.
And the percent who feel that patients are at risk of getting sick from improperly sanitized equipment drops from 43% to 29%.
Yet 82% of respondents report that their IT teams have limited or no involvement in these purchase decisions.
Security:
- 85% of clinicians believe they have a very important role to play in securing protected health information (PHI).
- Yet, 28% of clinicians said that they frequently/often view PHI in public settings.
- 36% of clinicians rated the satisfaction with time spent on authentication/login procedures as fair/poor.
- And only 9% of clinicians in hospitals with <100 beds are very satisfied. Dissatisfaction can result in unsecure workarounds.
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