Tenth Annual Spok Survey Reveals the State of Healthcare Communications in 2020

600+ healthcare professionals weigh in on enterprise-wide technology, current communication challenges, communications during COVID-19, and more

SPRINGFIELD, Va.  (Sept. 29, 2020) –Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK) and a global leader in healthcare communications, today released the results of its tenth annual survey on communications in healthcare. Respondents included more than 600 healthcare professionals from hospitals and health systems across the country.

Designed to help identify the importance of enterprise, or hospital-wide, communication solutions, the survey revealed that approximately 92% of healthcare professionals think enterprise communication technology is “very important” or “extremely important” in improving clinical outcomes. Similarly, 80% reported it is important to expand communications across multiple hospitals.

The survey findings also revealed that the majority (82%) of respondents are concerned that patient information and proprietary health system data are being communicated via unsecure or personal communication tools, like consumer texting apps or personal email. When asked to select the top two obstacles to advancing hospital communications, respondents most often selected budget/resource constraints and gaps in IT knowledge or expertise.

Of respondents who reported experiencing a communication gap during the COVID-19 response, the inability to communicate effectively was the most common reported problem (22%), followed by remote workers (19%), and lack of or insufficient communication devices (17%).

“While it’s a challenging time for healthcare, it’s also a time rife with opportunity for change,” said Vincent D. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Spok Holdings, Inc. “The survey indicates that healthcare leaders think a secure, single enterprise communication solution can improve clinical outcomes. We interpret these results to mean that hospitals and health systems that have not yet moved to a platform solution might now be ready to consider a new alternative, like Spok Go^®, our enterprise-wide communication solution purpose-built in the cloud for healthcare.”

Those interested in more survey results can read more on the Spok blog or download the full report.