2. Article Overview
❏ This article emphasizes the importance of sharing patient
information between the professionals in the health field.
❏ It explains how using advanced electronics and voicemails are not
very common within the healthcare organizations.
❏ The way the organizations communicate are also laid out and
evaluated.
3. Article Overview
❏ This article does a great job at stepping back and laying out the
components of a communication system
❏ Concepts of a communication channel, service, device and
interaction mode
❏ It also will depict the communication problems that arise across
the healthcare community.
4. Communication Channel
❏ A communication channel refers to the space in which
communication takes place.
❏ The communication channels within the HealthCare field are face-
to-face conversations, telephone calls, letters and emails.
❏ Even small HealthCare facilities have the ability to have complex
communication spaces.
❏ By complex I mean many people communicating with each
other at the same time within multiple communication
channels.
5. Combinatorial Formula
❏ There is actually a formula to determine the number of possible
conversations that are going on.
❏ Number of Conversations= n!/(r!(n-r))!
❏ n is the number of individuals
❏ r is the number of individuals involved in a single conversation
6. Common Communication Channels
❏ Once course reported that about 50-60% of the information that
clinics received came straight from the clinician rather than a
document.
❏ Only about 10% of information transactions came from an
electronic record.
❏ In another study, results showed that 90% of communication
within two emergency rooms were face-to-face interactions
7. Communication in Primary Care
❏ Telephone services could be used for giving information and/or
receiving help.
❏ For example, a patient could call the doctor’s office to schedule a
visit or tell them their symptoms so they could be directed to the
correct facility to receive help.
8. Telephone Services
❏ In the UK, the NHS Direct has been set up to provide information
to consumers and acts as a triage for the National Health Service
(NHS).
❏ Triage: assignment of degree of urgency to the wounds or
illness to decide the order of treatment.
9. NHS Direct
❏ The evaluation and effectiveness of this service is a difficult one to
measure because of the complexity of the communication
channel.
❏ However, some evidence suggests that it reduces demand on
emergency rooms because they have received fewer enquiries
since the service was established.
10. Inter-hospital Communication
❏ Hospitals are beginning to adapt to the idea of video-
conferencing.
❏ For example, when a general radiologist is able to consult with a
remote specialist by sharing X-ray images using low resolution
video, the general radiologist’s diagnostic accuracy increased.
11. Benefit of Video-Conferencing
❏ The Triage models that Primary Care used could be limiting to
those who need to be seen by limited sub-specifically resources.
❏ Therefore, when they general pathologists reviewed and reported
on a difficult case, they were able to send a remote specialist the
high-resolution images, so the client can get the best help and
most accurate answers.
12. Variables Affecting Type of
Communication Used.
❏How advanced the communication within a system is can depend on a
few things…
❏ Size of population served
❏ Utilisation rates of the services that are being augmented by the
communication option
❏ Distances workers or patients might need to travel
❏ Effectiveness of local services in comparison to the telemedical
options
13. Intra-hospital Communication
❏ In hospital many staff members carry pagers on them; especially
the nurses.
❏ Pagers could be issued to each individual staff member or the
staff members that need to respond to critical emergencies like
cardiac arrests within the hospital.
14. Failed Communication
❏ Communication errors cause about 14,000 in-hospital deaths
which is the lead cause of in-hospital deaths; deaths due to
inadequate clinical skills is about half than that of communication
errors.
❏ This could be due to all the noise in the communication space and
the lack of attention because it is such a fast pace environment.
15. Classical Approach
❏ The HealthCare industry displays a Classical Approach to
communication because…
❏ They focus on the task- treating the patient
❏ They can have a written communication channel- emails
❏ Their communication style can be formal- video- conferencing,
emails
16. Human Relations Approach
❏ The HealthCare industry displays the Human Relations Approach
to communication by….
❏ Having a vertical and horizontal communication direction-
patient to operator, patient to doctor, receptionist to patient,
receptionist to doctor
❏ Meeting face-to-face with other doctor’s to discuss their
patient
❏ Having a informal communication style- face-to-face
interactions, phone calls
17. Human Resources Approach
❏ The HealthCare industry uses the Human Resource Approach to
communication by…
❏ Having their communication direction go in all directions-
doctors to patients to receptionists back to another doctor
and so on
❏ Using all the channels in communication- emails, phone calls,
face-to-face, pagers, video-conference
18. Questions
❏ If the casualties due to ineffective communication is so high, why
doesn’t the HealthCare administration alter the way they
communicate?
❏ Maybe each HealthCare organization could hold meetings to get
input from their employees on how they could improve their
communication system?
19. Thoughts
❏ The best relatable metaphor used to sum up the communication
within the healthcare industry….
❏ “If information is the lifeblood of healthcare, then
communication systems are the heart that pumps it”
❏ Only if everyone realized how important effective
communication was…...
20. Works Cited
Coiera, E. (2006, May 27). Communication Systems in Healthcare. Retrieved
February 08, 2017, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1579411/
