Data security a key concern for 94 percent of healthcare IT directors

Recommind announced the results of research which found that 94 percent of healthcare and a further 73 percent of public sector organizations are most concerned about the security of their data when it comes to providing employees with the information required for their day to day jobs.

These concerns have led organizations to rely on inadequate legacy search systems which significantly fail to meet the sophisticated data requirements of the modern worker. The result is that staff are unable to quickly, easily and accurately locate the data they need, which significantly hinders productivity and efficiency in healthcare and public sector organizations and can have serious implications for the service they provide to citizens.

The research found that overall, more than 80 percent of respondents were concerned that providing access to the information users need for their daily tasks would pose serious security issues as it would be difficult to control who is able to access information and how such access might be restricted. Consequently, search solutions currently utilised by health and public sector organisations are outdated and ineffective.

The survey found that using these legacy enterprise search systems, healthcare and public sector professionals were able to search basic data such as documents, emails and intranets, but only a mere 27 percent of public sector and 39 percent of healthcare respondents were able to search individual expertise and experience – the lifeblood of any organisation in normal times, and even more important in times of financial stress.

These results are particularly surprising for the healthcare sector where knowledge and expertise amongst colleagues is arguably the most important asset. Indeed, the survey found that 68 percent of healthcare and 73 percent public sector respondents wanted the ability to locate expertise in order to help employees perform their daily jobs.

In addition to searching individual knowledge and expertise, the findings also showed that 71 percent of healthcare respondents and 87 percent of those from the public sector wanted to be able to search external information sources such as reference websites. In contrast, only 23 and 33 percent of healthcare and public sector organizations, respectively, were able to utilize their existing search systems to do this. These alarmingly low figures suggest that inadequate legacy search systems can make day-to-day researching a very time-consuming task for employees.

Further corroborating this point is the fact that nearly 40 percent of healthcare respondents stated that their employees spend half a day or more each week fruitlessly looking for information they need without finding it – revealing the inadequacy of existing search solutions.

The independent research, conducted by Vanson Bourne in December 2008, assessed the information capabilities and needs of CIOs and IT directors at 170 UK organisations with more than 1,000 employees operating in the financial services, manufacturing, retail, healthcare and public sectors.