From Tap-to-App: Improving Clinician Productivity with IGEL and ControlUp

In healthcare, every second counts.

A clinician swipes their badge at a shared workstation and subsequently waits for applications to load. It’s a quick moment, but it happens countless times throughout the day. Although these minor delays may seem insignificant, their cumulative effect can diminish productivity, disrupt operational workflows, and reduce the time available for patient care.

For healthcare CIOs, this isn’t just about user experience; it’s about addressing real operational inefficiencies that impact the entire care process.

What is Tap-to-App and why does it matter?

Tap-to-App refers to the duration from when a clinician taps a badge on a device to when applications are fully ready to use.

In practice, it spans multiple systems, including endpoints, identity providers, and virtual desktop infrastructure. Any delay within this sequence directly affects the clinician.

Traditional monitoring tools typically assess only backend performance indicators, such as logon times or session initiations. However, they can miss the full user experience, often generating a visibility gap between IT metrics and actual real-world performance.

Closing this gap is essential and long overdue.

How IGEL and ControlUp deliver end-to-end visibility

The integration of IGEL and ControlUp provides a complete view of the Tap-to-App experience from endpoint to application.

The Tap-to-App solution integrates with the IGEL Agent for Imprivata, connecting performance visibility with the badge-based authentication workflows clinicians already use on shared workstations. This enables healthcare IT teams to measure the experience from the initial badge tap through authentication, session launch or reconnect, and application readiness, while preserving the Imprivata workflows clinicians rely on for fast, secure access.

Built on the IGEL Adaptive Secure Endpoint Platform™, which includes IGEL OS, Universal Management Suite (UMS), and the IGEL App Portal, organizations gain a secure and standardized endpoint foundation.

• IGEL OS provides a read-only, preventative security model that reduces attack surface and aligns with Zero Trust principles
• IGEL UMS enables centralized management and policy control across distributed environments
• IGEL App Portal supports flexible, modern application delivery

Unlike traditional endpoints that require constant patching and management, IGEL eliminates endpoint drift and reduces operational overhead. When combined with ControlUp, IT teams gain real-time insight into the full Tap-to-App workflow:

• Endpoint interaction at the moment of badge tap
• Authentication and identity processing behind the scenes
• Session reconnect or launch across Citrix, Horizon, or AVD
• And ultimately, the moment the application is ready to use

Because IGEL OS operates at the endpoint, it provides critical visibility into the first step of the end user’s journey, enabling true end-to-end measurement.

Measuring and improving the clinician experience

Tap-to-App data allows IT teams to break down performance into meaningful stages, including initial login and reconnect events, where a new session is established, and reconnection events observed as clinicians transition between workstations.

These insights enable healthcare organizations to identify delays, prioritize enhancements, and optimize workflows across various locations. More importantly, they allow a transition from reactive troubleshooting to proactive experience management.

Quantifying ROI for healthcare organizations

In many hospitals, that friction shows up most during shift changes or rounding periods, when login and reconnect volumes spike. Improving Tap-to-App performance delivers measurable benefits for CIOs:

• Recovered clinician time. Even modest improvements of 10–15 seconds per tap event can scale quickly. In a 500-clinician environment, with 30–40 daily interactions, that can translate into 10,000 to 20,000 hours of clinician time reclaimed annually, depending on workflow patterns and adoption.
• Reduced service desk volume. Improved visibility and proactive remediation reduce “slow login” or “my app takes a while to appear” complaints, which are among the most common and costly categories of EUC tickets.
• Lower endpoint TCO. IGEL OS extends device life, reduces patching overhead, and minimizes endpoint variability, lowering operational and hardware costs.
• Faster mean time to resolution (MTTR). A unified view across IGEL endpoints and ControlUp analytics helps IT teams identify root causes and resolve issues before they escalate.
• Improved clinician satisfaction and retention. While harder to quantify directly, reduced digital friction contributes meaningfully to clinician experience, which is increasingly tied to retention and performance outcomes.

Building a secure, scalable digital workspace

Every healthcare CIO today is balancing the same pressures: security, cost control, and performance at scale. The integration of IGEL and ControlUp alleviates this burden by delivering:

• A standardized endpoint architecture across hospitals and clinics
• Centralized control with IGEL UMS
• Real-time analytics and automation through ControlUp
• Continuous optimization of the Tap-to-App experience

It also aligns IT operations with clinical requirements, thereby ensuring consistent performance across distributed healthcare environments.

Take the next step

It starts by understanding what clinicians actually experience.

By combining the IGEL Agent for Imprivata with ControlUp Tap-to-App, organizations can eliminate blind spots, reduce inefficiencies, and deliver faster, more reliable access to clinical applications.

Learn how the IGEL Adaptive Secure Endpoint Platform™, which includes the IGEL OS, UMS, and IGEL App Portal, together with ControlUp, can help you optimize Tap-to-App performance and improve clinician productivity across your healthcare organization.

Click here to download the EMA Impact Brief, “ControlUp Brings Clinician-Grade Tap-to-App Visibility to IGEL OS,” to close this visibility gap and protect crucial patient care time.