Many nurses using older, unsecured mobile technology

The survey, part of a report released by Spyglass Consulting, found that 67 percent of respondents use their own personal smartphones to support clinical communications and workflow, while 42 percent still use pagers. The report resurrects the concerns within healthcare facilities about staff using personally-owned devices and the risks they can pose to data integrity and patient privacy.

And while only 4 percent said their hospitals had already invested in enterprise-wide mobile technology, 51 percent said their hospitals are seriously considering implementing such a system over the next 18 months. However, 88 percent of hospitals interviewed expressed concerns about the risk of unprotected mobile devices on the hospital's network, which could open the floodgates to malware and viruses.

Still, the report stated: "Despite advancements in mobile devices and unified communications, hospital IT has underinvested in technologies and processes to support nurses at point of care to help eliminate communications bottlenecks, streamline productivity, improve care quality, and increase nursing satisfaction… Hospital IT has an imperative to evaluate leading Smartphone technology and enterprise class Smartphones to support collaborative team-based care."