Wireless solutions developed for the Australian healthcare: a review

Abstract

Despite the emergence of innovative wireless solutions in healthcare, the current status of health information systems (HIS) is primitive and a myriad of problems have crept into the development of these systems. Gartner research shows that the status of the HIS is about 10 years behind the expectation, and other studies have identified several issues in implementing IT healthcare applications. Wireless technologies and portable computing devices could be put into greater use in healthcare to provide timely and quality care and to remedy some of the organisational problems. In this paper, we present a review of wireless solutions in Australian healthcare. Our study reveals that, despite the sophistication and maturity of the wireless technology, healthcare organisations in Australia are far from deploying enterprise-wide wireless solutions, and this is in part due to complexities in deploying them and associated management problems such as the lack of broader vision and drive and support for new initiatives. We also provide some key recommendations for successful wireless implementation in healthcare.