Hospital Communication Management

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Importance Of Communication In Hospital: How Can You Streamline Healthcare Communication?

Hospitals today are equipped with ultra-modern equipment for providing better healthcare services to their patients. But there is one thing that most healthcare organisations overlook, and it could be costing your business without even you realising it.

We are talking about the communication in hospitals and the below-par attention it gets from healthcare providers. Most healthcare organisations do not realise just how crucial healthcare communication is and continue to ignore it.

Here, we discuss the importance of communication in health care and how you can optimise it in the most convenient way possible.

What is Healthcare Communication Management?

Healthcare communication management involves effectively managing the communication within healthcare organisations such as hospitals and clinics. It is vital to closely monitor and assess communication in hospitals because any flaws in it could potentially risk patients’ lives.

As you know, the care of a single patient involves several different individuals. You have nurses, doctors, lab in-charges, and many more people working in tandem to provide better healthcare to patients. Hence, the importance of communication in health care is now more prevalent than ever.

Furthermore, you can also observe that we are now incorporating new communication technologies to support healthcare services. The numerous conversations between healthcare professionals are enough to create a complex web of information.

What Is The Importance Of Hospital Communication?

Did you know that one of the primary contributing factors in unanticipated events that happen in hospitals is communication errors? Streamlining communication in hospitals is vital to ensure quality healthcare services in your healthcare organisation.

Even managing healthcare communication within a single hospital is challenging. Now, imagine managing and transferring healthcare data at transitions of care. The absence of effective communication in the hospital can lead to poor health outcomes and improper patient care.

But, it would be wrong to think that the importance of hospital communication is limited to providing accurate healthcare services. Yes, it is a significant part of healthcare communication, but there is a bigger picture that you may be overlooking. Here are some compelling reasons why you need proper communication for your hospital.

• Patients need to be able to freely and honestly communicate their health problems so you can administer the most effective treatment for them
• The healthcare professional should convey treatment plans to the patient and administrative staff
• The sharing of healthcare data between healthcare providers and administrators in an ethical way. It protects the confidentiality of healthcare data
• Healthcare providers must bridge the communication gap between stakeholders through culturally responsive communication

What Are The Barriers To Communication In Hospitals?

The thing about healthcare communication is that it comes in layers, just like the healthcare system itself. In other words, each layer in the healthcare system has its communication system. There is established communication in hospital within every individual department.

For example, the laboratory department inside your hospital has an established flow of communication. The same goes for every individual department inside your organisation and the communication between these departments.

However, there are specific barriers to communication in hospitals that may disturb the flow of information. Below are some of the significant obstacles to contact in a healthcare organisation.

Distrust Or Discomfort In Patients

One of the common barriers to communication in hospitals is the distrust or discomfort of the patient. It is understandable if a patient is somewhat reluctant to disclose sensitive information, even if they are talking to a healthcare professional.

For instance, the patient may have a substance misuse problem and don’t feel comfortable sharing that information with you. There are several reasons a patient may withhold information from the healthcare professional, which can affect communication in the hospital.

Some of the common reasons why patients withhold health information include

• The healthcare provider seems intimidating to them
• The patient feels that their healthcare provider does not listen to them
• The patient feels disrespected by the information requested by the healthcare provider
• The patient questions or lacks faith in medical advice in general
• The patient is going through physical or psychological trauma

Language Barriers

As a healthcare provider, you have likely encountered situations where no one in the hospital speaks the patient’s language. Language is a huge barrier that can halt communication in hospitals.

It is therefore vital that business organisations make way for culturally competent care. You should at least ensure you can effectively communicate with the indigenous and immigrant population. Considering the importance of hospital communication, it wouldn’t hurt to hire interpreters either.

It would be best to consider these measures because the language barrier can stop the patient from accurately conveying their symptoms and healthcare needs.

Rushing From One Appointment To Another

Healthcare providers often get stretched too thin with one appointment after another. No one can blame you for dealing with numerous patients in a small time gap. In such situations, the healthcare professionals may not be able to proper communication in hospitals.

They do not have the time necessary to establish a rapport with each patient. As a result, the importance of communication in health care may get lost in the process. Many hospitals sometimes use Automated Postcard Mailing to keep in touch with their patients and develop a rapport.

Of course, the first action should be to ensure that your healthcare professionals don’t come across as aloof or cold. Even on the busiest days, the importance of hospital communication does not change. However, the direct mail letter or postcard can be an effective failsafe for busy days.

For example, imagine you had a super busy day at a hospital or clinic, rushing through appointments. On such days, you can use an automated direct mail system like PostGrid to send them a letter or postcard. You can explain your busy day and how you are available if they have any questions.

Mismanagement of Healthcare Data

It is becoming more challenging to ensure effective communication between healthcare professionals daily. The healthcare data is constantly growing along with the number of healthcare teams and their reach.

It means different healthcare professionals may need to access the same patient information, perhaps simultaneously. Such situations can often lead to potential miscommunications and affect the patient’s treatment. However, you can consider using secure cloud storage for communication in hospitals.

Healthcare organisations must control how many individuals can access the patient’s healthcare data. It will help you optimise the communication in hospitals. Besides that, it enables your healthcare teams to communicate with each other accurately.

What Are The Elements For Effective Communication Between Patient And Health Professionals?

Implementing effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients has its challenges. However, certain elements can ensure effective communication for your healthcare organisation, and they are

• Fostering Relationships With Patients
• Two-way Communication
• Conveying Empathy
• Managing Uncertainties And Complexities
• Involving Patients In Healthcare Decisions And Planning

Fostering Relationships With Patients

The purpose of fostering relationships with your patients is to build a rapport for your healthcare services. Fostering good relationships with your patients leads to trust. And when the patient depends on their healthcare provider, communication in hospital becomes significantly easier.

When the healthcare professional establishes a relationship with the patient tends to be more satisfied with the healthcare service. Furthermore, interacting with a friendly face is ideal for your doctors and other healthcare staff. Hence, communication in-hospital benefits every party involved.

Remember how we talked about sending direct mail to your patients. Well, you can use such approaches to get closer to your patients. For example, consider sending them birthday cards using an automatic scheduled direct mail delivery. Such small gestures go a long way in fostering healthy relationships and streamlining the communication in hospital.

Two-way Communication

You must have two-way communication in hospital because it ensures an accurate diagnosis of the patient’s symptoms. But that’s not the only purpose for ensuring two-way communication. It allows you to engage with the patients and collect relevant healthcare information.

It also allows healthcare professionals to share their findings comprehensively with the patients. And instead of just throwing around complex medical terms, you can ensure the patient understands their medical situation. Hence, effective communication in-hospital positively influences diagnostic effectiveness and overall health outcomes.

As you can guess, effective two-way communication between patients and health professionals minimises medical errors. The healthcare professional also better understands the patient’s needs and care. Last but not least, the healthcare professional can make decisions after analysing accurate patient information.

Conveying Empathy

Being empathetic is an integral part of every successful healthcare organisation. Earning the patient’s trust and building a rapport for your healthcare business is vital for its success. Empathetic communication in hospitals is one of the most effective ways to gain the patient’s trust.

Naturally, a patient is likely to be satisfied with the healthcare experience at your hospital when you are empathetic towards them. Furthermore, compassionate communication in hospital(s) leads to an improved relationship between healthcare provider and their patients.

Managing Uncertainties and Complexities

To efficiently manage a patient’s expectations from your healthcare organisation, you need to manage uncertainties and complexities in healthcare. The key is to keep the patient informed on everything they need to know about their healthcare.

Communication between patients and health professionals ensures that the patient gets the care appropriate to their changing needs. Besides this, you can ensure the safety of critical patient information even if there are different medical teams involved.

The outcomes of such effective communication between healthcare professionals include a reduced distress potential. It means the patient does not have to go through feelings of anxiety because of an unexpected healthcare expense.

Involving Patients In Healthcare Decisions and Planning

Every healthcare decision requires the permission of the patient. But what usually happens is that explicit consent from the patients is only ensured in case of significant healthcare decisions, such as surgery. However, that is not one of the best examples of effective communication in healthcare.

Ideally, you should get explicit consent in all healthcare decisions and planning. However, that may not always be the practical option for your organisation. Ensuring consistent involvement of the stakeholder in healthcare decisions and planning lets you quickly reach healthcare decisions faster.

Involving patients in healthcare decisions and planning lets them get a good idea of their healthcare plan and treatment. Furthermore, this communication between patients and health professionals improves the patient’s compliance with the treatment process. As the patient is an active member in these healthcare decisions, they tend to self-manage their care too.

How To Ensure Effective Communication Between Patient And Health Professional?

There are three transition points you need to consider to optimise communication between patients and health professionals, and they are

• First engagement with the patient
• Transferring care to another healthcare provider
• Discharging the patient

First Engagement With The Patient

The first engagement with the patient is always crucial for your healthcare organisation. At this stage, you get all the information required for the clinical assessment, which affects the entire treatment process. Here is how you can optimise communication in hospital at the first engagement with the patient.

• Ensure that the healthcare professional attending to the patient introduce themselves personally.
• Check and ensure if the patient needs any assistance with communication.
• Assess the patient’s healthcare literacy, cultural/religious background and, of course, language barriers.
• Take preemptive measures to overcome any barriers to communication in hospital, including hiring an interpreter.
• Avoid medical jargon or complex medical terms and start using simple language the patient can understand.
• Always direct your communication to the patient, so they know you are addressing them. It applies even if you have an interpreter or family member present there.
• Get the go-ahead from the patient about sharing their information with family members or healthcare staff.
• Ensure active participation of the patient in the communication between patient and health professional.
• Encourage the patient to ask questions and raise concerns regarding medical procedures and plans.
• Check if the patient has an advanced care plan in place.
• Discuss realistic and possible healthcare goals and how you can incorporate them into the patient’s healthcare plan.
• Consider and address the concerns of the patient’s family and provide them with the necessary information.
• Document the patient’s healthcare goals, expectations, and preferences and accommodate them in the healthcare communication in-hospital.

Transferring Care To Another Healthcare Provider

Patient transfers can often be hectic for healthcare providers as any inaccuracies can lead to inappropriate treatment for the patient. Hence, it would be best if you did not underestimate the importance of hospital communication at this stage.

The basic requirements of healthcare data transfer are the standard ones you’d expect from any data transfer. You need to ensure that the data is up to date and accurate. Besides that, the communication in-hospital should ensure that they transfer the patient’s needs and preferences to the new healthcare provider.

Here is how you can optimise communication during the transfer of care to another healthcare provider.

• Get permission from the patient before sharing any protected healthcare information with the new healthcare provider.
• Describe the individual roles of each healthcare professional in the medical team.
• Inform the patient about their healthcare plan and let them know who should take care of their medical needs at any time.
• Ensure the participation of patients in their healthcare transition.
• Let the patient know that the communication in hospital is open, and they are free to ask questions or raise concerns.
• Involve the patient’s family/carer in the transition communication, but only if the patient gives you the go-ahead.
• Let the patient know about expected healthcare transitions and why it needs to happen.
• You can even include the approximate timeframes for the transition, including shift charges moving wards, etc.
• Before transitioning, check the patient’s requirements, preferences, and goals to ensure proper communication in hospital during the healthcare transition.
• If appropriate, acknowledge the pain and suffering the patient may be going through during the healthcare transition.
• Notify the patient’s family/carer about the transition or changes in the patient’s medical status.

Discharging The Patient

Another essential aspect of ensuring effective communication between patients and health professionals is discharging. The patient’s family or carer must understand the healthcare routine they need to follow for the patient.

Here is how you can optimise communication in hospital during the discharging of the patient.

• Provide a detailed discharge summary to the patient explaining the key aspects of the outline. The detailed overview should include the following details.
• The role of the patient/carer in the patient’s healthcare after discharging.
• The treatment plan for the patient and list of medicines.
• Inform about Follow-up plans, including lab tests and appointments.
• Items the patient should discuss with their GP.
• Symptoms and healthcare warning signs the patient should look out for.
• Ensure that the patient understands their healthcare requirements after discharge.
• Encourage the patient to ask questions and concerns and check whether they need the healthcare professional to repeat the instructions.
• Check out how capable the patient is in following healthcare instructions.
• Get feedback for the healthcare services you provided from the patient, their family or carer.
• Conduct a post-discharge follow-up via phone or email and ensure appropriate communication in the hospital.

How Can Postgrid Help You Streamline Communication Between Patient And Health Professional?

Sometimes it can be challenging to ensure accurate communication between patients and health professionals. However, using an automated tool like PostGrid can simplify healthcare communication for your organisation.

Automated Mailers For Effective Healthcare Communication

PostGrid offers a fully automatic direct mail tool to ensure timely communication for your healthcare organisation. PostGrid understands the importance of communication in health care and how vital it is to be punctual. It even allows you to schedule the printing and mailing of personalised healthcare mailers. You can send the following documents using PostGrid’s automated solution.

1. Explanation of Benefits (EOB)
2. Explanation of Coverage (EOC)
3. Patient billing statements
4. Patient letters and notices
5. Hospital and lab invoices
6. Appointment reminders
7. Medical statement inserts
8. Patient or physician mailers

Address Verification Tool To Ensure Accurate Patient Data

PostGrid’s address verification tool is perfect for you to ensure accurate patient data for your healthcare organisation. The address validation tool streamlines communication in hospitals and helps you in numerous ways. Here is how PostGrid’s address verification can help your healthcare organisation.

1. Confirm patient identity for HIPAA requirements
2. Protect patient information
3. Process distribution of prescription medicines
4. Avoid medical identity theft
5. Onboard and register patients remotely
6. Decrease wrong transfer, release, or updating of medical records
7. Circumvent losses because of deceitful claims and incorrect billing

Conclusion

Optimising communication in-hospital requires a lot of effort, and you may still not get it right without the right tools. Hence, every healthcare organisation must invest in advanced tools like PostGrid to streamline their healthcare communication.

The communication between patients and health professionals becomes a whole lot simpler with a system like PostGrid. It automatically sends critical healthcare documents, and you can schedule their delivery too. If that’s not enough, PostGrid also offers an address verification tool.

The address verification tool from PostGrid verifies patient data by checking it against AusPost’s official address database. Such a capability ensures efficient communication in-hospital and even adds security to your healthcare organisation.

However, it doesn’t matter how advanced your tools are if you don’t make a conscious effort to streamline your communication. Hence, every healthcare organisation must realise the importance of communication in health care and take steps to optimise their communication.

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