The health system only allows the use of HIPAA-compliant devices that have passed security review, Horowitz says. The team also locks down devices to make sure users do not share personal health information over an open system, Horowitz says.
Once a device has been provisioned with a set of applications, this configuration can change, Mahmud notes. Proper communication between care teams and IT can ensure that providers have the updates they need.
The health system also uses the mobile device management tool to handle application compatibility and choose which applications to install on devices.
“We need to make sure the apps coming from Epic are compatible with mobile devices that have a different OS,” Horowitz says. “It’s still a struggle. We are learning a lot as we go, but it gives us a much better handle on knowing what’s in our inventory and how to use it.”
Mobile device management applications allow clinicians to find the applications they need rather than searching on Google Play or the Apple App Store themselves, according to Mahmud.
“Instead of making the user go get the app and find the right registration code and login, device management can push out an app in a preconfigured, managed, secure way so that when users see the app installed on their phone, they can open it and it’s ready to go,” Mahmud says.
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Managing Mobile Device Turnover in Healthcare
When health systems first deploy a device, they should plan what to do at the end of the device’s lifecycle. Hospital IT departments managing the transition of device fleets must avoid a “laptop graveyard” with old devices lying around in supply closets.
With mobile device management applications, IT teams maintain control over devices when an employee leaves a company.
“If a device disappears, they can’t find the unit or someone who has left the organization takes it, we can shut it down so it can’t be used,” Horowitz says.
A zero-touch procedure allows IT teams to offload employees’ devices from a network, according to Mahmud.
“When we’re trying to offboard or offload or you have to prep a device for turnover, the ability to remotely touch not one device but thousands of devices en masse is huge,” Mahmud says.
This post originally appeared on TechToday.