Patients often have a whole team of medical professionals treating them. The Institute of Medicine found that each year the average elderly patient sees 7 physicians (5 specialists and 2 primary care physicians) across 4 different practices.

Professionals such as nurses, doctors, psychologists, social workers, and specialists work to ensure each patient has the best care, however, healthcare providers aren’t always able to effectively and securely communicate with each other about their patient’s needs.

Inadequate communication in hospitals not only put patients at risk, it can lead to patients feeling their health care experience was poor. This can be reflected in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Unacceptable survey results can result in hospitals losing some reimbursements.

Healthcare communication is complex and notoriously disconnected. Different departments rely on different systems to perform their job and these technologies typically don’t “talk” with each other. Using a secure messaging app, such as our HIPAA-compliant miSecureMessages, can be leveraged within hospitals and clinics to bridge communication gaps between disparate technology to streamline communication – ultimately improving hospital workflows and both patient and staff satisfaction.

Using Integration Engines with Secure Messaging

Critical Alerts

Integration engines can work with secure messaging apps and a hospital’s event notification software system to expedite enterprise-wide critical alerts in healthcare environments. The integration engine captures requests from hospital systems such as ADT (Admission, Discharge, and Transfer) messages, nurse call messages, smart beds, pain management, alerts, alarms, orders, or appointments. The alerts are instantly sent to designated recipients using a secure messaging app.

Notifications are received via preferred contact methods to an individual, an entire group, or the current on-call personnel – which enables recipients to respond quickly to provide better patient care. All statistics can also be accumulated for each notification to provide an easy-to-follow audit trail for reporting purposes and to help healthcare organizations refine their communication processes.

Automated, Emergency, and Mass Notifications

Automated notification and reminder communications can help healthcare organizations be sure that every resource is utilized to its full potential and reach more staff personal in less time. Notifications for emergencies, events, changes in weather, and everyday reminders can instantly be sent to designated recipients using a secure messaging app.

Mass notifications make it possible for an organization to be better prepared for planned and unplanned events, such as natural disasters, emergencies, service outages, meetings, and other instances when large groups, small groups, and individuals need to be notified quickly and accurately.

Web-based Communication

Clinicians must be able to access the information they need at any time from virtually any place – it’s a fundamental and critical part of any healthcare organization’s communication protocol. Secure messaging apps are web-based and some are specifically developed for the healthcare industry. Healthcare personnel can use these apps for encrypted secure messaging, care team collaboration, and as a pager replacement for those who are on call. 

Secure Messaging

Secure organizational communication is crucial for protecting patients, medical staff, and hospital organizations. HIPAA-compliant messaging apps such as miSecureMessages can send secure text, photo, audio, and video content while protecting patient privacy and can typically be used on smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. These apps simplify collaborative care to provide a better patient experience, and speed the process of patient admissions, lab results, patient transport, and more.

Care Team Collaboration

Secure messaging applications are used by nurses, physicians, and other staff to securely share patient health information, collaborate, and access on-call personnel.

Improving communication in hospitals is paramount. Healthcare organizations can reduce many root causes of inefficient communication by using secure messaging apps.