Infinite Convergence Solutions released a new study showing that only 8 percent of healthcare institutions prohibit consumer messaging apps for employee communication. Moreover, only 1 in 4 of institutions who have an official mobile messaging platform are using an internal, company-authorized app. The rest are using consumer-facing messaging apps and services that do not provide the enterprise-grade security needed to comply with regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

“The global healthcare industry is under strict privacy and security regulations to protect patient information, but our study finds that the vast majority of healthcare institutions are not using mobile messaging services that are compliant with these regulations,” said Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence Solutions. “Healthcare employees communicate inherently sensitive information, like patient prescriptions, medical information, etc., yet their employers do not have the proper mobile messaging security infrastructure in place to adhere to HIPAA or other regulatory requirements.”

The study also found that employees in the healthcare industry use mobile messaging more frequently than voice calling for their business communication.

92% of healthcare industry employees would use a messaging app if their employer decided to implement one.However, 51 percent of healthcare employees say their company does not have an official mobile messaging platform, despite the fact that 92 percent of these employees would use it if their employer decided to implement one, and 64 percent said it would make communication at their job easier.

Of the 49 percent of healthcare employees who say their employer has an official mobile messaging platform, 16 percent say that platform is GChat and 11 percent say it’s WhatsApp. What’s more, even without an official mobile messaging platform, healthcare institutions recommend employees use consumer mobile messaging apps. None of these messaging apps or services typically follow HIPAA guidelines for messaging security.

“We’ve found that 91 percent of healthcare employees use mobile messaging at least a few times per week for business communication,” said Lal. “Healthcare institutions need to get serious about meeting their employees’ needs and providing a secure, internal messaging platform that not only allows HIPAA compliance, but also replaces outdated communication systems, like pagers, in order to increase productivity and serve patients faster.”