Single sign-on saves 3.3m clinician hours a year, study finds

A new peer-reviewed study has revealed significant clinical time and cost savings from implementing single sign-on (SSO) technology in hospitals.

Dr George Gellert, an epidemiologist focused on using IT to improve public health outcomes, and 27 co-authors, many from UK hospitals, have just had a study into the clinical time savings and the financial value of single sign on and access management published in a peer reviewed journal.

Advances in Health Information Science and Practice (AHISP) isthe official journal of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).

The study, conducted in partnership with Imprivata, involved 55 hospitals in the UK and Ireland took place over a number of years (2018 to 2024).

It compared times to login into clinical systems before and after single sign-on technology was implemented.

The research showed that 3.3 million clinician hours were redirected annually from logging-in to patient care – equivalent to over 278,000 clinician shifts of 12 hours duration across the 55 participating hospitals.

On average, each hospital gained nearly £1 million/year in the value of freed clinician time, demonstrating a substantial return on investment.

Gellert said: “Deployment of an SSO/AM solution offers considerably greater impact and value than just an expedited login method – it is a cornerstone of secure, efficient, and clinician-friendly digital care.

“SSO/AM mitigates privacy risk, accelerates access to critical systems, facilitates increased patient throughput and quietly returns time to the frontline of patient care delivery.

“For health systems seeking to advance clinician workflows, enterprise cybersecurity and operational/financial efficiencies, the technology offers a high-impact, robust and proven path forward.”