healthcare messaging and its impact on elderly patient care

Mobile Healthcare Messaging

Due to the nature of care required for elderly patients, it has become common for family members to play an integral role in long-term care for patients at home, during the transition between facilities, and even in healthcare decision making. In fact, 65.7 million family members have become caregivers who provide care to someone who has aged, is ill or disabled in the United States.

A recent report from Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Center (JHUEPC), have shown that a  systematic communication between healthcare providers, patients and their familie results in better patient care for the family members involved.

 Mobile and secure messaging can play a big role in providing long term care to elderly patients and caregivers.The systematic communication between healthcare providers, patients and their families simply results in better patient care and better peace of mind for the family members involved. Because text messaging has become a preferred means of communication in both professional and personal environments, healthcare teams and family members often rely on native SMS text to collaborate for faster patient care decisions.

In fact, 95% of healthcare professionals, physicians and nurses use their smartphones and tablets for work – whether sanctioned or not. However, because healthcare data breaches are up 40% from 2015, skilled nursing facilities need to be confident that the sensitive patient information shared within the circle of care will not be compromised.

 As healthcare providers transition from fee-for-service to value-based care, it's becoming more important than ever for healthcare providers to streamline communications with the entire care team, all while maintaining HIPAA compliance.

The  healthcare industry is among  the most targeted industries for cyberattacks, hence its  important to go beyond compliance to truly ensure the integrity of the patient record and protect patient privacy. Therefore, skilled nursing facilities should consider secure messaging platforms that focus first and foremost on the protection of the circle of care communications.

 The caregiver team can also leverage the efficiency and features of SMS texting, such as group text, without opening up the conversation to risks, vulnerabilities or outside sources. Further, secure messaging platforms available today can prevent images from being screenshotted or stored on devices, and provides the ability to expire messages from devices and message servers based on policy while maintaining a copy of the communication with the patient record in the EHR . A recent report projects that the marketplace for technology designed to assist aging adults is expected to reach more than $30 billion in the next few year which is a rise of 1400% from today's market figures.