Communication is critical to success at any level of organization, but especially in nursing and healthcare, where misinterpretation can result in death. The medical community has made significant progress in improving communication inside institutions, but little work has been dedicated toward transmitting patient information between organizations. As a result, there is a need to develop technology solutions that allow effective cross-communication among health institutions in order to improve healthcare. The goal of this research is to examine the existing lack of suitable communication channels and propose how technology can address the issue. Technology to Support Cross Communication of Patient Information
The medical field is integrated to incorporate the services of numerous institutions and sectors in service delivery. According to a study conducted in the late 1990s, poor communication accounted for between 44000 and 98000 annual deaths in America (Taran, 2011). Since 1990, hospitals have put measures place that streamlines communication between patients and health workers within the same institution. However, the proposals do not offer guidelines on communication between agencies that cooperate in patient care such as hospitals and fire departments or private medical laboratories and medical centers.
The lack of proper communication about patient information between institutions affects the administrative and clinical aspects of workflow in healthcare delivery. For example, most medical facilities below district level do not have state of the art technology such as cancer diagnosis machines and medical laboratories. Doctors send patients to a state level hospital for further tests, and the nurses and doctors have to wait for the results which sometimes take time due to the overload of tests medical labs. Thus, the delay interrupts smooth workflow when delivering clinical advice to a patient.
Poor communication is such a problem in the US that medical errors arising from lack of proper communication channels are the third cause of death after heart disease and cancer (Noguchi, 2014). The problem of institutional cross communication is best articulated by attempts to treat co-occurring conditions like drug abuse and mental illness. For example, dually diagnosed patients are admitted numerous times to mental health facilities, and sometimes drug rehabilitation centers and every admission leads to a different diagnosis by each facility due to lack of similar patient information, which causes a confused treatment process (Nicholas et al., 2017).
Stakeholders in the medical field can leverage the power of technology and cloud-based solutions to enhance channels of cross-institutional communication and data transference. The government should give incentives to the pharmaceutical sector stakeholders to come up with an agency whose sole purpose is to collect, store, and integrate patient information to private and public medical companies as well as make the information available on demand (Baumlin et al., 2010). However, only relevant patient information such as health history should be in the integrated system to avoid overload of irrelevant data. Further, collaborative technology helps reduce errors during patient transfers and enhance access to specialists such as laboratory experts who provide timely information about tests of a patient no matter the place.
This research submits a request to the government of the United States as the sole custodian of the welfare of the citizens to consider passing policies that enhance better communication channels between institutions. For instance, policymakers can implement the solution at the district or state level for testing upon which the success will determine the rollout plan for the entire country.
Nurses are crucial to any medical development, and thus, registered nurses should be central to the implementation of the technological solutions to make sure that they understand the procedures and rules of patient information sharing. However, given that nurses are primarily responsible for patient information as an essential part of healthcare, the proposed solutions should be integrated into mobile technologies like iOS and Android application. For example, a nurse should be able to access and provide patient information from any medical lab through a smartphone in case it is required by a doctor when making a diagnosis.
Conclusion
Communication is an important aspect of success in any level of organization especially nursing and healthcare where miscommunication can lead to loss of life. The implementation of proper technological solutions can eliminate the errors caused by misinformation and enhance healthcare delivery. Also, the technology should be streamlined with the duties of registered nurses given that nurses are custodians of patient information.
References
Taran, S. (2011). An Examination of the Factors Contributing to Poor Communication outside the Physician-Patient Sphere. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved on 28 September 2017 from, [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277343/].
Noguchi, I. (2014) Miscommunication a Major Cause of Medical Error, Study Shows. State of Health. Retrieved on 28 September 2017 from, [ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2014/11/25/miscommunication-a-major-cause-of-medical error-study-shows/].
Nicholas, D., Calhoun, A., McLaughlin, A., Shankar, J., Kreitzer, L., & Uzande, M. (2017). Care Experiences of Adults with a Dual Diagnosis and Their Family Caregivers. Global Qualitative Nursing Research. Retrieved 27 September 2017, from [journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2333393617721646].
Baumlin, K. M, Genes, N., Landman, A., Shapiro, J. S., Taylor, T. & Janiak, B. (2010). Electronic collaboration: using technology to solve old problems of quality care. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved on 28 September 2017 from, [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21122013].
