In the world of smartphones and tablets, pagers may seem dated, even archaic, but they are still a staple tool in healthcare. Forgoing more recent technologies may seem like a cost saving measure, but a new study has found just the opposite.
HIMSS Analytics released the results from "The Hidden Costs of Pagers in Healthcare" study, sponsored by TigerText. The study included 200 hospitals. Here are four things to know from the study.
1. Of the hospitals included in the study, 90 percent still use pagers. On average, these hospitals spent $180,000 per year related to these devices.
2. On average, paging service cost per device was $9.19 per month. On the other hand, the cost of secure messaging apps is less than $5 per month.
3. Additionally, the research identified a number of "soft" costs associated with pagers, such as:
• Lack of two-way communication
• Communication gaps
• Lack of full context and no option to provide feedback or ask questions
• Inconvenience of managing more than one device
4. "Nothing would make me happier than to move away from pagers," said one CIO at a leading university hospital who participated in the study. "At one time, pagers were more convenient, before people had their cell phones on them all the time; however, there are significant challenges with not using updated technology, such as not having a centralized directory, contacts and call schedules. I think people are going to be happy to shed a device and instead walk around with a device that is theirs and that they already rely upon every day.