Modern, Connected Tech Is Essential for Caregivers and Patients

Legacy healthcare technology is jeopardising patient safety, a risk magnified by the unprecedented strain of the COVID‑19 pandemic.

SOTI’s recent research surveyed home‑care workers, visiting nurses and healthcare professionals across the UK, Europe, Canada, the U.S. and Australia. The findings reveal that technological immaturity hampers their ability to deliver care amid an administrative overload.

The survey is part of SOTI’s new Critical Technology for Critical Care: State of Mobility in Healthcare 2020/21 Report, which examines how equipped healthcare workers are from a digital perspective, the key mobility challenges they face on the frontline, and how well their organisations have fared during the pandemic.

More than two‑thirds of UK healthcare workers and over half of respondents worldwide agreed that investment in modern technology could save lives.

Spending excessive time on processes that could be streamlined with a modern, interconnected infrastructure is unsustainable—especially during 2020.

With budgets already stretched and patient outcomes under intense scrutiny, healthcare workers need the tools to deliver critical care.

Calls for Digital Assistance Remain Unanswered

63% of respondents worldwide report device or system failures within an average working week. An additional 56% confirm that using their institution’s technology wastes valuable time that could be spent helping patients.

Less than half of workers’ time, and only 37% in the UK, is spent directly on patient care. The majority of time is consumed by updating records, recording information and other administrative tasks.

Given that few professionals enter the field to perform such tasks, the long‑term risk of fatigue and lost skills is very real. It is therefore unsurprising that a vast majority are calling for digital assistance.

Worryingly, these calls have largely gone unanswered: only one‑third of global healthcare workers say their employers have invested in new technology, and only a quarter believe their systems are ready to manage the pandemic.

This year has been a wake‑up call for the relationship between the sector and technology. There is an opportunity to safeguard against future crises by building a connected network that enables immediate, simple patient care and automated, controlled operations.

Security Skepticism

The Internet of Things (IoT) can simplify, smarten and make operations more reliable by connecting devices across an extensive network and giving workers agile, mobile platforms. Yet security remains a major barrier to adoption.

While more than two‑thirds agree that accessing employers’ systems on a mobile device when visiting patients would make their job easier, 82% have experienced issues with various systems in the past. Such frustrations often lead them to revert to familiar processes to avoid mistreatment or data loss.

High‑profile security breaches—such as the NHS WannaCry ransomware attack, the 2020 breach of Brno University Hospital in Prague, and the attempted attack on the World Health Organization—have amplified concerns. Healthcare is not immune to cybercriminals, and entrusting digital management to frontline workers can be daunting.

Therefore, the focus should not be solely on digitising healthcare or offloading that transition to those in the field. The next step is an education‑driven shift to a new culture built on secure interconnectivity.

Taking Control and Relieving the Burden

Approximately 80% of healthcare workers worldwide are concerned about the security of patient records in a digital infrastructure—a valid worry if devices are not managed properly.

However, this concern stems from a lack of understanding rather than a lack of platforms that can mitigate these risks. Solutions such as the SOTI ONE Platform provide the tools needed to connect and manage an IoT transformation and associated mobility devices, addressing security, support, analytics, integrations and upgrades.

This frontier brings trepidation around managing complexity, but the sophistication, safeguarding, visibility and resulting efficiency can help solve the sector’s most pressing challenges.

It is not enough to adopt IoT; we must take control of it. Decision‑makers must provide a central point of analysis and control that relieves pressure on siloed frontline individuals. Technological transformation should be a responsibility of employers, embedding a culture that empowers workers to operate freely.

For any enterprise, this is a differentiating proposition. In a sector where lives literally depend on technology, the time for smarter adoption is now.

By restoring trust between frontline workers and digital devices, their primary ambition—treating those in need—can return to the forefront.

The author is Stefan Spendrup, vice president of Sales, Northern and Western Europe at SOTI.