The majority of pediatric hospitalists — 91 percent — use smartphones, and nearly 60 percent sent or received work-related text messages on their personal smartphones, according to a study in Telemedicine and e-Health.
Researchers administered a survey through the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hospital Medicine listserv in February 2012 to assess work-related text messaging habits.
Here are 11 more statistics on pediatric hospitalist texting use.
1. Approximately 60 percent of respondents said they sent a work-related text on their personal smartphone, and 61 percent said they received a work-related text.
2. Twelve percent of respondents said they received work-related texts more than 10 times a shift.
3. More than half of respondents — 53 percent — said they received work-related text messages when they were not at work.
4. Respondents said they most often sent work-related text messages to other pediatric specialists, at 64 percent, followed by fellows or resident physicians at 37 percent and subspecialists and consulting physicians at 28 percent.
5. Forty-six percent of respondents indicated worry about violating privacy laws by sending and receiving text messages.
6. Approximately one-third of respondents — 30 percent — said they have received protected health information via text messaging.
7. Eleven percent of respondents said their institutions offer encryption software for text messaging.
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