Importance Of Effective Communication In Healthcare: Strategies And Outcomes

Importance of Communication in Healthcare

Discuss about the Business Communication in Healthcare System.

The process of effective communication in a healthcare system is important in providing patient safety and in enhancing patient satisfaction. The readmissions in hospitals could be provided if there is better communication between the medical staffs, healthcare teams and patients. The quality of interaction with the healthcare team and the patient determine the quality of healthcare from the patient’s perspective. In many instances, transfer of accurate critical communication is important for reducing the risks in patient safety.

According to Gordon, Deland and Kelly (2015) the healthcare providers, the care team and caregivers do not communicate properly among them about the patient’s needs. They also do not spend time to communicate with the patient conveying medical information and course of treatment. Moreover, it is not only the lack of communication among the care providers, the patients also does not remember what they have been told and in a study almost 40% of the patients recalled incorrectly (Kurtz, Silverman and Draper 2016). The proper communication among the healthcare team helps in better understanding of the team’s goals and in decrease in duration of stay in the hospital (Riley 2015). Both formal and informal communication systems are important part of the communication needs in a healthcare system. There is also decline in medical errors and improvement of patient safety due to effective communication in the healthcare system.

Most of the medical and system errors are due to ineffective communication among the team members that lead to risk in patient safety. The stress, high task situations lead to an increase in the medical errors and pose a threat to patient safety.  The medical errors also occur when the information is not properly recorded, misread, misdirected or ignored (Colvin, Eisen and Gong 2016). The workload pressure loopholes in electronic healthcare systems and constant interruptions leads to malpractice cases and it hampers the patient safety. The U.S. healthcare system is getting affected due to poor communications and costs the lives of around 2000 people (Fenton et al. 2015). In New Zealand, the pharmacovigilance centre reported that medical errors, patient harms and wrong dose are due to workload, interruptions and miscommunication (Kunac, Tatley and Seddon 2014). In Singapore, millions of people die due to medical errors costing US$470k for resolving the medical errors issue and 113,551 issues regarding patient safety (Reader, Gillespie and Roberts 2014). The misinformation about the patient’s condition, patient’s complaints and verified informed consent are affecting patient’s safety due to communication lapses. Due to these outcomes, the patient’s safety is at stake and the healthcare system is being affected due to miscommunication. Effective communication strategies are required to have better healthcare outcomes and in improving patient safety.

Outcomes of healthcare miscommunication

Collaborative approach to health care where the healthcare professionals work in cooperation in solving problems and in decision making can improve the miscommunication and have better health outcomes (Giardina et al. 2014). The collaborative teams characterized by trust and mutual respect would provide better healthcare services and patient outcomes. Team collaboration and accurate communication among the team is very essential for effective clinical practice and in providing best quality of care (Renedo et al. 2015). Effective decision making and problem saving is only possible when the healthcare professionals works in collaboration in ensuring patient care. Standardized communication tools would help the healthcare professionals to communicate efficiently and in expressing their concerns. There is a requirement to transfer and communicate complex information that would help the medical professional to make necessary decisions and take action. Proper planning and training of the teams is required for effective communication and in providing quality patient care.

A structured communication approach is important for improving patient safety and in the delivery of healthcare. The I-PASS method is an excellent approach to curb miscommunication and ensure effective information among the healthcare providers during handoffs (Starmer et al. 2014). This strategy is very effective and there is a decrease in 30% of medical errors and improvement of patient safety. I-PASS consists of illness severity, patient summary, action list, situation awareness and synthesis by receiver. It is a mnemonic that has standardized the process of handoff that is not only beneficial in pediatrics abut also in other inpatient settings. This well designed strategy has helped in efficient handoffs of the patients as it is one of the leading sources of miscommunication among the healthcare professionals (Sheth et al. 2016). It is beneficial in reducing medical errors that are caused due to miscommunication among the medical professionals. Firstly, the severity of the illness is measured based on stability of the patient. Secondly, the patient’s medical history, cause of admission, hospital course, ongoing assessment and planning is taken into consideration. Thirdly, proper action including to-do list, timeline are taken in accordance with the illness. Fourthly, situation awareness and contingency planning is also taken into consideration. Finally, the receiver summarizes, ask questions and restates the key actions received during the handoff procedure.

I-PASS is a novel mnemonic that was developed to provide best handoff practices and structured communication during this procedure would promote patient safety. Apart from this procedure, communication training is required among the healthcare professionals and clinicians that would help to achieve better health outcomes. The communication skills are enhanced via safety drills and role playing in the educational training can improve communication in hospitals (Silverman, Kurtz and Draper 2016). There should also be direct evaluation and monitoring of the procedures by the departments would help to identify the gaps in the team and correct them. Moreover, proper documentation of the patient’s details and reporting of the patient’s condition is also important to have better patient outcomes (McMillan et al. 2013). The practicing of oral communication skills are also helpful in avoiding big errors that would hamper the patient and the hospital setting as a whole. The collaborative care should be aimed at meeting the needs of the patients and in delivering high quality of care. Safe and coordinated care is only possible when there is clear communication between the team members. An integrated electronic health record system would also be helpful for facilitating effective information among the team members (Gagnon et al. 2014).

Collaborative approach to healthcare

Conclusion

Effective communication among the healthcare professionals is very essential in a healthcare system to avoid medical errors and in ensuring patient safety. The transfer of clear information from the care providers to patients is important in the achievement of goals and in providing better health outcomes. To achieve this, the healthcare system has adopted I-PASS mnemonic tool to have better handoffs practice and is effective in better communication. Moreover, effective electronic health records and better exchanges of health information would also ensure better communication and patient safety. Collaborative approach is also important as clear communication among the team members would reduce the medical errors and malpractice risk and in delivering better quality of health care.

References

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Gagnon, M.P., Ghandour, E.K., Talla, P.K., Simonyan, D., Godin, G., Labrecque, M., Ouimet, M. and Rousseau, M., 2014. Electronic health record acceptance by physicians: testing an integrated theoretical model. Journal of biomedical informatics, 48, pp.17-27.

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Gordon, J., Deland, E. and Kelly, R., 2015. Let’s Talk About Improving Communication in Healthcare. Columbia Medical Review, 1(1), pp.23-27.

Kunac, D.L., Tatley, M.V. and Seddon, M.E., 2014. A new web-based Medication Error Reporting Programme (MERP) to supplement pharmacovigilance in New Zealand-findings from a pilot study in primary care. The New Zealand Medical Journal (Online), 127(1401), p.69.

Kurtz, S., Silverman, J. and Draper, J., 2016. Teaching and learning communication skills in medicine. CRC press.

McMillan, S.S., Kendall, E., Sav, A., King, M.A., Whitty, J.A., Kelly, F. and Wheeler, A.J., 2013. Patient-centered approaches to health care: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Medical Care Research and Review, 70(6), pp.567-596.

Reader, T.W., Gillespie, A. and Roberts, J., 2014. Patient complaints in healthcare systems: a systematic review and coding taxonomy. BMJ quality & safety, 23(8), pp.678-689.

Renedo, A., Marston, C.A., Spyridonidis, D. and Barlow, J., 2015. Patient and Public Involvement in Healthcare Quality Improvement: How organizations can help patients and professionals to collaborate. Public Management Review, 17(1), pp.17-34.

Riley, J.B., 2015. Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Sheth, S., McCarthy, E., Kipps, A.K., Wood, M., Roth, S.J., Sharek, P.J. and Shin, A.Y., 2016. Changes in Efficiency and Safety Culture After Integration of an I-PASS–Supported Handoff Process. Pediatrics, 137(2), p.e20150166.

Silverman, J., Kurtz, S. and Draper, J., 2016. Skills for communicating with patients. CRC Press.

Starmer, A.J., O’Toole, J.K., Rosenbluth, G., Calaman, S., Balmer, D., West, D.C., Bale Jr, J.F., Clifton, E.Y., Noble, E.L., Lisa, L.T. and Srivastava, R., 2014. Development, implementation, and dissemination of the I-PASS handoff curriculum: a multisite educational intervention to improve patient handoffs. Academic Medicine, 89(6), pp.876-884.