a mere 8% of healthcare institutions prohibit the use of consumer applications

A recent  study, on Mobile Messaging for Healthcare Institutions,” surveyed 500 professionals in the finance, healthcare, retail, and legal markets.According to the infinite group findings of  of those individuals in healthcare, shows only eight percent of such institutions prohibit the use of consumer applications for discussion between employees.

 Furthermore, it found that only one in four institutions with “official” messaging platforms recommend using an internal app (not off-the-shelf programs such as Skype or WhatsApp). This is a huge potential breach of consumer data and privacy protections and it only reinforces the notion that these types of practices do not fall in line with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

 “The global healthcare industry is under strict privacy and security regulations to protect patient information, but the latest study finds that the vast majority of healthcare institutions are not using mobile messaging services that are compliant with these regulations, The fact that “Healthcare employees communicate inherently sensitive information, which includes patient prescription and medical information, however inspite of that their employers do not have the proper mobile messaging security infrastructure in place to adhere to HIPAA or other regulatory requirements. This is a huge risk for patients and healthcare institutions and its imperative healthcare providers adhere to the best practices on mobile messaging compliant to HL7 messaging/ HIPPA standards.