Open and Clear Communication in Health Care Essay
Open and Clear Communication in Health Care Essay
Over time, the quest for patient-centered, accurate, and coordinated care has intensified in health practice. As a result, health care professionals should work closely and embrace technologies that enable them to deliver safe, patient-centered care. Teamwork is critical in care coordination and interprofessional collaboration. However, health care teams cannot achieve the desired results without open and clear communication. In this technology-driven era, health care professionals are increasingly using technologies that enhance communication and teamwork for effective, safe, and quality care. The purpose of this paper is to explore how communication technologies can enhance the coordination of care by interprofessional teams.
One of the critical roles of communication technologies is to facilitate quick and accurate communication among team members. As Hassan (2018) posited, effective communication plays a critical role in preventing inaccuracies and delays that hamper patient safety. Electronic health records (EHRs) are instrumental in providing the necessary information for joint and quick decision-making. Vos et al. (2020) found such decision-making valuable in improving the quality of care of chronic patients usually served by a team of medical specialists. Through EHRs, such teams can communicate without significant interruptions besides receiving patient data when and how it is needed.
Another technology that facilitates team communication and care coordination is smartphone technology. It is highly reliable in supporting communication between nurses and physicians. According to Manocha et al. (2020), smartphone technology facilitates quick access to medical information, consultation between team members, and group conversation. The technology has effectively replaced numerical and alphanumerical pagers associated with delayed responses, callback number errors, and health care professionals’ inability to return calls. Such deficiencies frustrate team members requiring immediate responses, hindering teamwork, and increasing the chances of endangering safety and care quality (Manocha et al., 2020). Doing away with communication inefficiencies enables interprofessional teams to work together seamlessly. It also improves their motivation to work since they coordinate with ease.
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In health practice, communication inefficiencies have far-reaching consequences. They can make health care professionals miss symptoms, increasing the chances of misdiagnoses and medication errors. Although EHR notes help reduce medication errors, safety and care quality cannot be achieved without close and healthy communication. EHRs and smartphones facilitate group conversation and interprofessional collaboration and ensure that health care professionals access the information needed for safe and quality patient care quickly (Manocha et al., 2020; Vos et al., 2020). When health care teams coordinate, it is possible to prevent medication errors and increase the motivation to work. Collaborative practice is also pivotal in reducing mortality rates since chances for misdiagnosis, and gross medication errors are minimal. Such benefits underscore the need for health care professionals to embrace communication technologies in modern practice.
Conclusion
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Patients seek medication help hoping to be diagnosed and treated as their conditions necessitate. To effectively address their needs, interprofessional teams should work together in providing safe, patient-centered, and holistic care. However, such critical goals cannot be achieved without open and clear communication. Communication technologies have been instrumental in enhancing care coordination by interprofessional teams in present practice. As discussed in this paper, such technologies include EHRs and smartphones. Through EHRs, different interprofessional team members can access patient information for joint clinical decision-making. Smartphone technology facilitates group communication and prevents communication delays. Such positive outcomes underline the reason for promoting technology use and adopting mechanisms necessary to overcome barriers to communication technologies.
References
Hassan, I. (2018). Avoiding medication errors through effective communication in healthcare environment. Movement, Health & Exercise, 7(1), 113-126. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3573437
Manocha, S., Spiegelman, J., Miller, E., & Solomon, S. (2020). Smartphone technology: impact on interprofessional working relations between doctors and nurses. Healthcare Quarterly (Toronto, Ont.), 23(SP), 35-42. doi:10.12927/hcq.2020.26174
Vos, J. F., Boonstra, A., Kooistra, A., Seelen, M., & van Offenbeek, M. (2020). The influence of electronic health record use on collaboration among medical specialties. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05542-6
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Open and clear communication is critical for the effective functioning of the interprofessional team and the delivery of safe patient care. Discuss the way communication technologies can enhance coordination of care by interprofessional teams. Be sure to discuss a specific communication technology in your response.