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25/06/2026 3:05 pm
TL;DR: UK healthcare facilities using shared-use mobile devices report average annual savings of £522,000, but 47% still lack a fully implemented policy and 77% say users share credentials, according to Imprivata’s 2025 State of Shared Mobile Devices in Healthcare Report. The core issue is not device adoption itself, but whether identity, sign-in, and offboarding controls can keep pace with shared clinical workflows.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Imprivata: the 2025 State of Shared Mobile Devices in Healthcare Report
By the numbers:
- Nearly half 47% of organisations have not fully implemented a policy for managing shared-use mobile devices.
- Most survey respondents 85% agree that mobile devices are essential clinical tools.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should healthcare organisations govern shared-use mobile devices safely?
A: Treat shared devices as governed access endpoints, not just shared hardware.
Q: Why do shared mobile devices create identity risk in clinical environments?
A: They create identity risk because multiple people use the same endpoint, so access state can outlive the person who initiated it.
Q: What breaks when shared device policy is only partially implemented?
A: A partial policy allows local workarounds to become normal operating practice.
Practitioner guidance
- Formalise shared-device access handoff Define how one clinical user ends a session before the next user begins, including explicit sign-out, session reset, and clear attribution rules for every shared device.
- Tie device readiness to access eligibility Block shared devices that are uncharged, misconfigured, or out of compliance from being used for patient access until they return to a known-good state.
- Track shared-device policy adoption at the ward level Measure whether policy is actually implemented by location, shift, and device pool so that governance gaps are visible before they become routine workarounds.
What's in the full report
Imprivata's full report covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Country-by-country survey breakdowns across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia that show how shared-device adoption differs by healthcare system.
- Detailed clinical workflow findings on lockouts, device availability, and how frontline staff compensate when devices are missing or misconfigured.
- The survey methodology and respondent profile from 125 UK clinical and IT leaders, useful if you need to benchmark your own programme.
- The reported ROI and savings assumptions behind the £522,000 annual estimate for UK healthcare facilities.
👉 Read Imprivata's report on shared-use mobile devices in healthcare →
Shared-use mobile devices in healthcare: where identity governance breaks?
Explore further
25/06/2026 4:24 pm
Shared-use mobile devices expose an identity governance gap, not just a mobility gap. The report makes clear that the value case is established, but the control model is still incomplete in many organisations. When staff share devices and sessions are left open, the issue is not the device itself but the absence of a repeatable access lifecycle for a shared endpoint. Practitioners should treat this as a governed identity pattern, not a technology pilot.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 79% of organisations have experienced secrets leaks, with 77% of these incidents resulting in tangible damage, according to the Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
- Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who is accountable when patient data is accessed on a shared clinical device?
A: Accountability should remain tied to the authenticated user, the device state, and the organisation’s access policy. If any of those are unclear, post-incident review becomes unreliable. Healthcare teams should ensure shared-device logging, sign-in controls, and offboarding rules make the responsible user traceable at every session boundary.
👉 Read our full editorial: Shared-use mobile devices expose healthcare identity gaps in UK hospitals
