In the healthcare world, fast, reliable communication is vital. When caring for a patient, there are often multiple levels of caregivers that need to be given information. From the EMT bringing the patient in, to the nurse eventually assigned to the patient, to the clinicians running vital testing, and the physicians who will work to find a solution, it is crucial to be in the loop and have all the most current health information. Mobile communications make management of your healthcare needs much more manageable. HipLink offers a mobile communication software that is extremely reliable.
HipLink can change the communication strategy at any hospital.
Grace Hospital in Ohio is commonly known as a high stress and high fatigue environment. Operating as a not-for-profit hospital, within a hospital, Grace handles patients with the most complex and serious cardiac conditions. While they only staff experienced and dedicated individuals, all four hospitals suffered from alarm fatigue, a struggling budget, and strained communication.
Medical centers are in the business of saving lives, making patient survival rates heavily dependent on the expediency and efficiency of the medical center’s communication methods. For instance, the ER nurse activates the trauma teams and the doctors and staff need the paging system to keep each other informed of developing situations and emergency cases. Unfortunately, the most common technical solutions for medical communication are outdated and inflexible.
Saving lives is one of the main purposes of a hospital. In order to fulfill this purpose, a hospital must have clear communication. Healthcare providers work together and are constantly in communication in order to provide the best healthcare possible. However, trying to manage multiple pages can cost both time and money. One hospital found a solution to this problem and it’s saving them in a big way.
On April 29th, 2016, the Joint Commission announced its new position on patient care through text messaging. This is a tremendous step forward in healthcare communication and will improve many aspects of patient care. At this time, physicians or licensed independent practitioners are able to text orders for patient care, treatment, services to the hospital, or other health care settings if they are using a secure text messaging platform.
The initial stance was that text messaging was not considered safe enough to use in healthcare settings due to unsecured text messages being transmitted via personal mobile phones.
Mobile health technology is transforming the entire healthcare system. The combination of innovative data analytics and mobile technologies are simplifying the methods used by healthcare professionals from the patient care experience to healthcare administration.
Healthcare providers faced obstacles with mobile health technology lacking essential protective measures as they relate to shared patient information, ensuring conformity of mobile devices with EMRs, and concluding which apps were the safest and most effective. Today, the efficacy of mobile health technology has proven successful. With access to a fully optimized, real-time, reliable mobile health app, healthcare providers have immediate access to vital information and the ability to share it with other pertinent team members.
Implementation of Secure Text Messaging (STM) affords healthcare providers a convenient, efficient method to communicate with colleagues in real time. Lab results, medication requests, and test results can all be sent and received via a secure, encrypted text messaging app.
However, implementation alone does not ensure usage of the STM app. Many healthcare providers may be skeptical of the new changes to the existing system. In order to augment adaptation, hospitals need to be driven and encouraging in their efforts to promote usage of the app. An internal marketing campaign, support from the IT department, and positive feedback from users are some ways this can be done.
In this rapidly advancing technological world, an increasing number of healthcare providers are incorporating electronic health record (EHR) technology. In addition, they are also connecting to health information exchanges more frequently, making patient health information (PHI) more susceptible to online security threats as well as possible HIPAA data breaches.
The convenience of PHI being more accessible to providers also carries the risk of being more accessible to hackers and unauthorized users. Effectively monitoring and managing potential risk is imperative for a healthcare organization. Risk assessments play a key role in staying HIPAA compliant. Mobile devices and ransomware threats are examples of why healthcare providers need to be prudent in their risk analyses. The slightest oversight or lapse could lead to a HIPAA data breach as well as a lengthy, expensive recovery course.
Placing a loved one with Alzheimer’s or any other memory-impairing disease in an assisted senior living environment is sometimes the best and only option for that person. If faced with such a situation, you want to ensure they receive the best possible care and ensure their safety. Therefore, you take a tour, meet with caregivers, and leave a list of phone numbers for a staff member to call in case of emergency. Have you asked how communication flows within the organization?
Grace Hospital is committed to providing the best clinical care to patients with complicated health conditions. It looked to enhance its clinicians’ ability to focus on direct patient care while reducing alarm fatigue and increasing protection of patients’ personal health information. The hospital also wanted to improve the communications between its four locations to increase efficiencies and centralize functions.
