Communication in HealthCare

Communication in

HealthCareYours Truly,

Kaila Beckrow

Article Overview❏ This article emphasizes the importance of sharing patient

information between the professionals in the health field.

❏ It explains how using advanced electronics and voicemails are not very common within the healthcare organizations.

❏ The way the organizations communicate are also laid out and evaluated.

Article Overview❏ This article does a great job at stepping back and laying out

the components of a communication system

❏ Concepts of a communication channel, service, device and interaction mode

❏ It also will depict the communication problems that arise across the healthcare community.

Communication Channel❏ A communication channel refers to the space in which

communication takes place.

❏ The communication channels within the HealthCare field are face-to-face conversations, telephone calls, letters and emails.

❏ Even small HealthCare facilities have the ability to have complex communication spaces.❏ By complex I mean many people communicating with

each other at the same time within multiple communication channels.

Combinatorial Formula❏ There is actually a formula to determine the number of

possible conversations that are going on.

❏ Number of Conversations= n!/(r!(n-r))!

❏ n is the number of individuals

❏ r is the number of individuals involved in a single conversation

Common Communication Channels❏ Once course reported that about 50-60% of the information

that clinics received came straight from the clinician rather than a document.

❏ Only about 10% of information transactions came from an electronic record.

❏ In another study, results showed that 90% of communication within two emergency rooms were face-to-face interactions

Communication in Primary Care❏ Telephone services could be used for giving information

and/or receiving help.

❏ For example, a patient could call the doctor’s office to schedule a visit or tell them their symptoms so they could be directed to the correct facility to receive help.

Telephone Services❏ In the UK, the NHS Direct has been set up to provide

information to consumers and acts as a triage for the National Health Service (NHS).

❏ Triage: assignment of degree of urgency to the wounds or illness to decide the order of treatment.

NHS Direct❏ The evaluation and effectiveness of this service is a difficult

one to measure because of the complexity of the communication channel.

❏ However, some evidence suggests that it reduces demand on emergency rooms because they have received fewer enquiries since the service was established.

Inter-hospital Communication❏ Hospitals are beginning to adapt to the idea of video-

conferencing.

❏ For example, when a general radiologist is able to consult with a remote specialist by sharing X-ray images using low resolution video, the general radiologist’s diagnostic accuracy increased.

Benefit of Video-Conferencing❏ The Triage models that Primary Care used could be limiting

to those who need to be seen by limited sub-specifically resources.

❏ Therefore, when they general pathologists reviewed and reported on a difficult case, they were able to send a remote specialist the high-resolution images, so the client can get the best help and most accurate answers.

Variables Affecting Type of Communication Used.

❏How advanced the communication within a system is can depend on a few things…

❏ Size of population served

❏ Utilisation rates of the services that are being augmented by the communication option

❏ Distances workers or patients might need to travel

❏ Effectiveness of local services in comparison to the telemedical options

Intra-hospital Communication❏ In hospital many staff members carry pagers on them;

especially the nurses.

❏ Pagers could be issued to each individual staff member or the staff members that need to respond to critical emergencies like cardiac arrests within the hospital.

Failed Communication❏ Communication errors cause about 14,000 in-hospital deaths

which is the lead cause of in-hospital deaths; deaths due to inadequate clinical skills is about half than that of communication errors.

❏ This could be due to all the noise in the communication space and the lack of attention because it is such a fast pace environment.

Classical Approach❏ The HealthCare industry displays a Classical Approach to

communication because…

❏ They focus on the task- treating the patient

❏ They can have a written communication channel- emails

❏ Their communication style can be formal- video- conferencing, emails

Human Relations Approach❏ The HealthCare industry displays the Human Relations

Approach to communication by….

❏ Having a vertical and horizontal communication direction- patient to operator, patient to doctor, receptionist to patient, receptionist to doctor

❏ Meeting face-to-face with other doctor’s to discuss their patient

❏ Having a informal communication style- face-to-face interactions, phone calls

Human Resources Approach❏ The HealthCare industry uses the Human Resource Approach

to communication by…

❏ Having their communication direction go in all directions- doctors to patients to receptionists back to another doctor and so on

❏ Using all the channels in communication- emails, phone calls, face-to-face, pagers, video-conference

Questions❏ If the casualties due to ineffective communication is so high,

why doesn’t the HealthCare administration alter the way they communicate?

❏ Maybe each HealthCare organization could hold meetings to get input from their employees on how they could improve their communication system?

Thoughts❏ The best relatable metaphor used to sum up the

communication within the healthcare industry….

❏ “If information is the lifeblood of healthcare, then communication systems are the heart that pumps it”

❏ Only if everyone realized how important effective communication was…...

Works CitedCoiera, E. (2006, May 27). Communication Systems in Healthcare. Retrieved

February 08, 2017, from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1579411/