TAMPA, Fla., February 21, 2023 (Newswire.com) - Black Book polled healthcare professionals in Q2 2022 through Q1 2023 to develop the annual comprehensive industry report on the state of secure communications, recognizing top-performing vendors based on client experience and customer satisfaction indicators. The mission of Black Book's independent user surveys is to enlighten healthcare technology buyers on those industry vendors that perform beyond expectations, as reported by current and former customers at every user level in the organization they serve.

Spok®, a global leader in providing a unified, HIPAA- and HITECH-compliant mobile platform for messaging, calls, and alerts, earned top honors as the highest-rated product for a sixth consecutive year.

Black Book Market Research LLC measures customer satisfaction across 18 copyrighted key performance indicators: Strategic Alignment of Vendor Offerings to the Client's Mission and Goals; Innovation and Optimization; Training and Education; Client Relationships and Cultural Fit; Trust, Accountability, Ethics, and Transparency; Breadth of Offerings; Deployment and Implementation; Customization; Integration and Interfaces, Interoperability, and Connectivity; Scalability and Client Adaptability, Vendor Staff Expertise, and Performance; Reliability; Brand Image and Marketing Communications; Marginal Value Adds; Vendor Financial Viability and Managerial Stability; Data Storage Services; Support and Customer Care; and Best of Breed Technology and Process Improvement.

In total, nearly 7,000 cybersecurity system users and senior-level managers participated in the seven-month crowdsourced survey, including 1,104 CIOs, CISOs, and hospital IT security managers to track and trend user experience.

"Usability with clinical communications technology improves workforce satisfaction, and that, in sequence, improves patient care delivery," said Doug Brown, President of Black Book Research. "In addition, the methods for sharing sensitive health information in the last decade have multiplied exponentially, and advances in patient care now require extraordinary clinical communication and collaboration tools like Spok offers hospitals."

Nearly 100 percent of respondent CISOs and CIOs have made secure communications a priority in 2023. Eight percent report they have implemented process improvement teams at their organization that are working on mitigating security gaps in clinical workflow and improving mobility.

Based on IT management respondents, more than 29% of hospital data in Q4 2022 was being shared through unsecured methods.

Thirty percent of hospitals do not currently support HIPAA-compliant secure communications and messaging on any device, slightly down from 34 percent in Q3 2021. Twenty-five percent offer secure texting on hospital-issued devices only currently.

"The Joint Commission's review of sentinel event data is consistently identifying poor communications as a leading root cause of serious injury or death related to patient care," said Brown. "Many health systems, however, still need an uncomplicated yet broad and dependable digital communications technology to facilitate the prompt exchange of information to improve patient safety and quality."

About Black Book™

Black Book Market Research LLC provides healthcare IT users, media, investors, analysts, quality-minded vendors and prospective software system buyers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other interested sectors of the clinical technology industry with comprehensive comparison data of the industry's top respected and competitively performing technology vendors. The largest user opinion poll of its kind in healthcare IT, Black Book™ collects over 40,000 viewpoints on the healthcare industry's cybersecurity information technology and outsourced services vendor performance annually. Black Book™ is internationally recognized for over 15 years of customer satisfaction polling.

Black Book™, its founder, management and/or staff do not own or hold any financial interest in any of the vendors covered and encompassed in this survey, and Black Book™ reports the results of the collected satisfaction and client experience rankings in publication and to media prior to vendor notification of rating results.

Follow Black Book™ on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/blackbookpolls.

For methodology, auditing, resources, comprehensive research, and ranking data, see http://blackbookmarketresearch.com.