5 suggestions for bettering medical communication
Seconds matter in healthcare. A affected person who experiences a stroke, for instance, has a decrease likelihood of purposeful independence and an elevated chance of mortality when therapy is delayed. The identical is true for coronary heart assaults, sepsis and plenty of different medical circumstances: time is of the essence.
“Quicker response equals higher outcomes for the standard and price of care,” mentioned Will O’Connor, MD, Chief Medical Data Officer (CMIO), TigerConnect. The important thing to quicker response instances is an efficient medical communication system. “Actual-time, contextual medical communication is the gold customary,” he famous.
However, poor medical communication results in adverse affected person outcomes, inefficient workflows and clinician burnout. “Root trigger evaluation exhibits {that a} majority of the errors that trigger hurt to sufferers are brought on by errors of communication,” mentioned O’Connor.
For all these causes — the impression on affected person care, care collaboration and clinician expertise — efficient medical communication is essential to the success of healthcare organizations (HCOs). O’Connor shared 5 suggestions to assist HCOs enhance medical communication.
1. Don’t use the EHR for medical communication. EHRs are important for hospital operations and most embrace a communication characteristic. Nevertheless, O’Connor mentioned, it’s a mistake to depend on the EHR for medical communication. EHRs should not designed to offer the real-time, contextual communication wanted by clinicians. As well as, EHR methods exclude care staff members exterior of the hospital system, like a major care doctor in personal apply or a household caregiver. Lastly, EHR communication options are sometimes awkward to entry and use — which is why many clinicians devise workarounds. “Essentially the most profitable deployments of medical communication know-how replicate the patron communication expertise,” mentioned O’Connor. “That’s one thing that an EHR doesn’t do.” Nevertheless, a well-designed medical communication system not solely replicates the patron communication expertise in ease of use, but it surely additionally provides worth with options that assist privateness, safety and care collaboration.
2. Use one medical communication platform throughout the group. “When a company decides which medical communication system they may use, they should implement it throughout the group and make its use obligatory for everybody,” he mentioned. After an efficient medical communication system is applied, “the proof of enchancment rapidly turns into so overwhelming that no cheap particular person can deny it’s the proper factor to do.” In different phrases, making using the applying for communication between care groups obligatory provides the system the chance to show its advantages and indispensability to all stakeholders.
3. Eradicate pagers. “The healthcare trade is the one main trade that also depends on this out of date know-how,” he identified. Pagers are costly, inefficient and disruptive to the affected person and clinician expertise. Moreover, they’re an unreliable technique of communication as a result of there is no such thing as a technique to confirm whether or not the recipient obtained the web page or after they may reply. O’Connor recommends changing pager-based communication with a medical communication system that leverages Wi-Fi. A Wi-Fi-based system can embrace default settings that point out whether or not recipients have obtained a notification, in addition to whether or not they have considered the notification. This helps transparency in communication. This strategy presupposes that the group will conduct an analysis of Wi-Fi protection throughout all amenities to establish and remediate lifeless spots. Not solely does this make sure the medical communication system will work, but additionally that every one different Wi-Fi dependent instruments — such because the EHR — are supported as effectively.
4. Consolidate clinician on-call schedules. Most well being methods have a number of, disconnected methods of documenting on-call clinicians, starting from Excel spreadsheets to the whiteboard within the affected person room.
“The query, ‘Who’s masking this affected person?’ will get requested a thousand instances a day in well being methods throughout the nation,” mentioned O’Connor. “And it’s not simply concerning the doctor on-call, it’s additionally about who’s masking from a nursing perspective, who’s the nurse supervisor, who’s the bodily therapist and so forth.” Consolidating and digitizing on-call schedules and making them accessible via the medical communication system can repay when it comes to elevated effectivity and higher and quicker resolution making. “That is an space of alternative for everybody,” he emphasised.
5. Begin now. “Nursing and doctor burnout are at historic highs,” O’Connor identified. “Putting in a medical communication system that ensures the precise data goes to the precise individuals in actual time has a profoundly constructive impression on the caregiver expertise and goes a great distance towards serving to with stress and burnout.”
For extra data on bettering medical communication go to: www.tigerconnect.com.
