More than two-thirds of hospital executives, 70%, say their institution has a formal or comprehensive strategy in place for selecting, acquiring and integrating digital health products.
The ratio represents a significant rise over the past two years. In early 2022, the slice of execs working from a dedicated digital playbook was just over half (52%).
So reports digital health platformer Panda Health, which commissioned Sage Growth Partners to survey 100 U.S. hospital leaders this past September and posted the results this month.
The exercise brought in responses from, predominantly, short- and long-term acute care hospitals, critical access hospitals and specialty hospitals.
The researchers found that most hospital C-suite occupants feel either “merely” satisfied or neutral about the digital software they’ve already implemented.
The categories over which the respondents indicated heightened levels of satisfaction are cybersecurity, telemedicine and self-service patient scheduling.
They like cybersecurity products because the category delivers ROI as promised, telemed because it improves patient satisfaction and efficiency, and patient self-scheduling because patients appreciate it and it, too, boosts operational efficiency.
Asking about adoption levels, the researchers found cybersecurity (84%) and Telemedicine (80%) top the list of the most widely deployed solutions.
The least widely adopted: virtual nursing (13%) and autonomous medical coding (11%).
Also of note, the aggregated responses suggest that, going forward, remote patient monitoring will have more of an impact on hospitals than any other type of digital health technology.
The authors of the Panda report comment that the best digital health strategies are “built from a strong foundation of market intelligence and research, but also take into account each organization’s unique needs, priorities, objectives, workflows, patient demographics, reimbursement structure, current technology use and integrations, and more.”
The report is promotional of Panda’s offerings in the digital health consulting space, but its findings are informative in their own right. Full report here
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.