January 23, 2026
Across Australia and New Zealand, hospitals are progressing along at different stages of their digital health transformation journey. While some organisations are well advanced, others are still working through how to deploy digital systems that are practical, accessible, and effective at the point of care.
The objectives are consistent across the sector: safer care, improved productivity, a sustainable workforce, and a more personal care experience. Achieving these outcomes, however, does not just depend on deploying digital tools, but also ensuring clinicians can use them easily and effectively when delivering care.
Care delivery is inherently mobile. Nurses, doctors, and allied health professionals move continuously between patients, across wards, and through the clinical environment. Yet many hospitals still rely on a fragmented mix of shared carts, fixed workstations, desk phones, pagers, and standalone devices. This complexity can create inefficiencies, delays, and frustration at the bedside.
A single device strategy addresses this challenge by consolidating essential clinical functions into one secure, healthcare-grade device. The value lies not in the device itself, but in what it enables – simpler workflows, faster access to information, and more time returned to the clinician to focus on patient care.
In practice, a single-mobile device strategy can support:
• Reliable access to the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) at the bedside
• Delivery of timely, role-based alerts and notifications
• Secure communication that enables collaboration across multidisciplinary teams
• A personal duress device for staff safety
• Real-time documentation without leaving the patient’s side
Together, these capabilities help create more intuitive workflows that improve care quality, increase clinical efficiency, and support staff wellbeing.
Many digital health strategies aim to safeguard patient safety, improve clinical outcomes, optimises clinical workflow across the continuity of care. However, these initiatives can lose momentum when access to clinical systems is tied to fixed locations. Mobility helps bridge this gap, translating digital investment into practical clinical benefits.
Real-time access to information at the bedside supports better decision-making, faster responses to clinical events, and improved data quality through immediate documentation. It also reduces the cognitive and physical burden placed on clinicians who would otherwise need to move between systems and compete for shared devices.
Looking ahead, hospitals are planning for ongoing change – new clinical applications, real-time decision support systems, virtual care models, and increasing workforce pressures. A single mobile device strategy provides a flexible foundation for this evolution. Rather than deploying new hardware for every novel capability desired, functionality can be extended through applications and integrations, allowing organisations to adapt without disrupting established workflows.
Technology alone does not deliver transformation. Successful mobility strategies are underpinned by a thoughtful, consultative approach that includes:
• Involving frontline staff in workflow design
• Integrating seamlessly with core digital health platforms
• Addressing security and infection control requirements from the outset
• Designing for flexibility rather than prescribing fixed use cases
When implemented with care, a single-device approach reduces complexity while increasing clinical capability. It supports a more sustainable, clinician-focused model of digital health – one that aligns technology with the realities of care delivery.
Digital health continues to reshape how care is delivered and experienced. To realise its full potential, clinicians need reliable, real-time access to health systems at the point of care. A single-device mobile strategy helps bridge the gap between digital infrastructure and everyday clinical practice, supporting current needs while laying a scalable foundation for the future.
Author
Christopher Keah, solutions architect, Connected Health, Wavelink
Chris is an experienced solutions architect in healthcare ICT, with a background in vendor-side roles across both public and private healthcare projects. Notable projects include his work with the Sunshine Coast University Hospital and the Victorian Cancer Centre. He has extensive technical expertise in systems integration, clinical messaging, voice-over Wi-Fi (VoW-Fi), real-time locating systems (RTLS), nurse call systems, clinical mobility, medical device integration, and patient collaboration.
