Some 30 percent of health professionals are dissatisfied with the technology their organization uses for secure communication, according to a Harris Poll survey of 955 providers. The survey was commissioned by PerfectServe.

The professionals included in the survey were hospitalists, primary care physicians, specialist physicians, hospital administrators, office managers and practice administrators, nurses, and case managers.

Of those who were dissatisfied with the secure communication technology at their health organization, 68 percent said this dissatisfaction was a result of different teams in the company using different technologies and 55 percent said that was because not all members of these teams had access to the same technology. 

The most common communication technology used with patients as a part of population health management was phone calls -- 83 percent said this form of technology used in their office and 74 percent said they used online patient portals to communicate with patients.

Fewer respondents reported use of newer communication technologies. Thirty nine percent said they used telemedicine, 36 precent said they used video conferencing, 32 percent said they used remote monitoring, 32 percent said they used mobile care team communications, and 31 percent said they used remote consults.

A majority of clinicians said that the lack of newer, secure communication tools made their jobs more difficult. Some 69 percent of clinicians said they have experienced delays in patient care while waiting to receive important information about the patient.

Over half of clinicians said they don’t always know the correct care team member to contact in a given situation and 71 percent of physicians said wasted time trying to communicate with others on a patient's care team. Just 25 percent of physicians strongly agreed that they are able to collaborate or consult with colleagues effectively and 48 percent of physicians said they are frequently contacted erroneously.