Implementation best practices: Clinical communication in the spotlight

Communication between caregivers and others throughout a healthcare organization, be it a health system or hospital or group practice, is critical. Any hiccups in communications can directly impact patient care or even cause medical errors.

Healthcare communications technology has come a long way since the days of pagers and landline telephones. Today smartphones are everywhere, mobile apps and portals are connecting caregivers and caregivers not to mention caregivers and patients, and doctors and nurses are communicating via other healthcare information systems.

Here, three experts in healthcare communications technology offer comprehensive best practice advice and knowledgeable tips for healthcare CIOs implementing communications technology, which is also useful for those organizations with communications technology already up and running.

Best Practices

• Assess mobile maturity - Successful implementation of a healthcare communications technology starts with assessing the organization's mobile maturity status before making a clinical communications investment.
• Have a current assessment - A good place to start is by assessing the current state of communication technology throughout a facility; this could be imperative to discover what needs must be addressed.
• Establish ROI goals - Establish ROI goals prior to implementation.  Engaging patients and attracting healthcare consumers depends on the CIO developing meaningful metrics that are organizational mission-specific and are key for all health system executives to show evidence that the secure communication platform they employ is effectively encouraging healthcare delivery improvements and cost savings.
• Evaluating the product - The combination of a comprehensive needs-assessment, inclusion of the relevant clinical leadership and end users, and a thorough evaluation of the solutions will help ensure that the implementation you choose will be successful and well-received by clinical users.

The full Healthcare IT News article can be viewed at this link.