The healthcare industry has growing pains. Merger-and-acquisition-fueled expansion is at odds with initiatives to eliminate waste. Physicians juggle larger patient populations with expectations to provide more access. These forces are changing the way the healthcare industry works, and fast.
How can hospitals grow and become more streamlined? And how can providers see more patients, yet provide a better customer experience? The answer may be as simple as communication.
As many as 1,744 patient deaths in five years and $1.7 billion in malpractice costs have been traced back to communication failures, according to a study from CRICO Strategies. Another study from the University of California, San Francisco found improving communication between healthcare teams and between providers and patients could eliminate more than a quarter of hospital readmissions.
Crafting a communications strategy and supporting it with tools can help physicians and nurses get time back in their day and help empower patients. Yet many providers don't have the tools they need to do this. A survey conducted by Spyglass Consulting Group in 2014 found 97 percent of hospital clinicians felt nurses lacked the tools they needed to determine the availability and status of other care team members. It also found nearly as many clinicians — 90 percent — felt their hospitals made little or no departmental investments in mobile communication.
Please join Tony Rich of Unify, a global communications software and services firm, for a complimentary webinar May 26. Tony will share case studies of healthcare providers implementing communications solutions to improve staff and patient experience, enhance quality outcomes and deliver productivity gains throughout an organization.
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