It’s Not Easy Being a Hospital’s Mobile Device Manager (PDAStreet.com Article)
December 4, 2008
Over the last five years, demand for mobile technologies in healthcare has risen exponentially. Unfortunately, additional headcount to keep those devices under control, as well as tools to manage these critical communication devices, has not kept pace.
Today’s telecommunications managers preside over an extensive investment in mobile devices, including: cell phones, pagers, smartphones, and PDAs, as well as inbuilding voice technologies from Vocera, Ascom, Polycom/Spectralink and Cisco. It’s not unsual for even a small community hospitals’ mobile assets to represent over $500,000+ of pure capital costs (and that doesn’t include software licensing and on-going operational costs aside).
In respect to asset management, the challenges are significant.
With an ever-increasing pool of devices, high demand by needy end-users, and limited staff, keeping track of devices’ service status, repair/warranty/production information, carrier costs, as well as literal inventory, is an absolute necessity to any enterprises that increasingly rely on mobile devices. It’s also one of a telecommunications/mobile asset manager’s greatest challenges.
Kenny Schiff’s PDAStreet.com article “It’s Not Easy Being a Hospital’s Mobile Device Manager” profile’s Bernadette Rose, Norwalk Hospital’s Manager of Telecommunications and Communication Services. It also includes “Hospital Mobile Device Management 101,” 7 tips for better control over devices.
