Many hospitals and health systems are seeking to streamline and simplify communications in an effort to simultaneously cut wasteful spending and improve care delivery. They want to replace traditional call centers and the manual process of paging physicians, says Terry Edwards, CEO of PerfectServe, a clinical communication platform for hospitals.
Here, Mr. Edwards shares three tips for hospitals looking to update staff communications and become more automated and mobile.
1. Deliver result information to physicians wherever they may be and make it easy for them to take action. There are times when physicians must wait to take action until they see the results of a test. However, because of a communication delay or breakdown, the physician is not made aware that the result is available. To speed up the process in this situation, some health IT companies are creating electronic systems that provide the physician with test result notification and report summary via their smartphone, and include the patient contact information directly in the report. For example, PerfectServe is running a project at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago to expedite pathology result reporting. By including the patient's phone number in the report, pathologists can connect immediately to let a patient know what the results are. Those calls are then automatically logged.
Another project PerfectServe is working on is an integrated communication system that notifies primary care physicians through a phone call or text message alert when their patients are admitted to a hospital.
"That's helping primary care doctors perform better follow up care and enhancing revenue because they can deliver care they might not have otherwise delivered," Mr. Edwards says.
2. Slash the need to interpret multiple lists, call schedules and rolodexes. Part of the reason hospitals are looking to third-party vendors to help set up internal communication models is to get rid of waste and inefficiency in the process of getting hold of on-call physicians, Mr. Edwards says.
For instance, hospitals may want to "codify rules and variables for every member of the medical staff for every moment of the day," Mr. Edwards says.
Software can create algorithms that have programmed physician and department contact information and know the rules around reaching those people or places. A hospital may want to create rules outlying important contact information for typical scenarios, and have that information readily available through health information technology solutions.
Mr. Edwards says that kind of IT setup allows the physician the luxury of asking the question "Is this something I need to be interrupted on or can I wait for a few hours to respond?," and getting a firm and timely response.
3. Establish a single way to reach every physician on a common platform. Hospitals looking to truly integrate communication points and make the process less stressful should establish a single platform for doing so, Mr. Edwards says. The important part is for hospitals to do their research and find products that will establish a foundation for communication.
"Once the basic infrastructure is put in place and the common method is adopted, healthcare organizations can apply it to specific problems," says Mr. Edwards.
While hospitals need to initially invest in an integrated internal communication system, the savings could add up fast, according to Mr. Edwards.
"We're seeing the hospitals we partner with saving around $2 million per year," he says. "If we were responsible for 10 to 15 percent of that, the hospitals' investment has been positive."
Here, Mr. Edwards shares three tips for hospitals looking to update staff communications and become more automated and mobile.
1. Deliver result information to physicians wherever they may be and make it easy for them to take action. There are times when physicians must wait to take action until they see the results of a test. However, because of a communication delay or breakdown, the physician is not made aware that the result is available. To speed up the process in this situation, some health IT companies are creating electronic systems that provide the physician with test result notification and report summary via their smartphone, and include the patient contact information directly in the report. For example, PerfectServe is running a project at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago to expedite pathology result reporting. By including the patient's phone number in the report, pathologists can connect immediately to let a patient know what the results are. Those calls are then automatically logged.
Another project PerfectServe is working on is an integrated communication system that notifies primary care physicians through a phone call or text message alert when their patients are admitted to a hospital.
"That's helping primary care doctors perform better follow up care and enhancing revenue because they can deliver care they might not have otherwise delivered," Mr. Edwards says.
2. Slash the need to interpret multiple lists, call schedules and rolodexes. Part of the reason hospitals are looking to third-party vendors to help set up internal communication models is to get rid of waste and inefficiency in the process of getting hold of on-call physicians, Mr. Edwards says.
For instance, hospitals may want to "codify rules and variables for every member of the medical staff for every moment of the day," Mr. Edwards says.
Software can create algorithms that have programmed physician and department contact information and know the rules around reaching those people or places. A hospital may want to create rules outlying important contact information for typical scenarios, and have that information readily available through health information technology solutions.
Mr. Edwards says that kind of IT setup allows the physician the luxury of asking the question "Is this something I need to be interrupted on or can I wait for a few hours to respond?," and getting a firm and timely response.
3. Establish a single way to reach every physician on a common platform. Hospitals looking to truly integrate communication points and make the process less stressful should establish a single platform for doing so, Mr. Edwards says. The important part is for hospitals to do their research and find products that will establish a foundation for communication.
"Once the basic infrastructure is put in place and the common method is adopted, healthcare organizations can apply it to specific problems," says Mr. Edwards.
While hospitals need to initially invest in an integrated internal communication system, the savings could add up fast, according to Mr. Edwards.
"We're seeing the hospitals we partner with saving around $2 million per year," he says. "If we were responsible for 10 to 15 percent of that, the hospitals' investment has been positive."
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