Every year, $11 billion are wasted due to poor hospital communications. The lack of technology and the diversity of the devices hospital staff use results in miscommunication and lengthy hospital channels. In this modern, digital era, can we not do better?
An article published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine highlights that physicians spend 25% of their day on communication. On a regular day, this means at least 2 hours spent on something other than caring for patients, such as checking charts and contacting other doctors.
Communication is an integral part of a doctor’s indirect patient care. A physician and the hospital staff as a team all require reliable channels to reach each other. However, most of the tasks they perform, whether booking an operating room or simply needing to relay information among one another, results in various communication methods being used. Diagnosis: major headache.
This ultimately results in increased costs for a hospital and affects physicians and hospital staff. For example, a PubMed study on U.S. hospitals shows the impact of communication inefficiencies.
The use of technology has gained traction over the years and has resolved numerous issues present in today’s healthcare system.
Scheduling technologies: allow hospitals to manage all their schedules efficiently and provide a consolidated view of all on-call physicians to the entire staff. One platform, one communication method.
Losing time on something that is easily avoidable should not be a reality in this digital age. You can stop wasting time and money on poor communication today.
Improving communication at the hospital level allows all staff to easily and quickly reach one another. Leveraging technology in hospitals also has a positive impact on budgets, patient care coordination and more.