Communications software has a major role to play here, one that is often under-appreciated. Users of these systems may think of them as tools that increase efficiency, but may not view them as a vital link in accelerating a clinician’s response to emergencies.

For example, consider a patient who has been admitted to the hospital with a gall bladder problem. After an initial assessment, the patient is moved to the med-surg floor. The patient’s acuity may change from hour to hour, but staffing levels and treatment plans are slow to adjust. However, by leveraging current digital systems, hospitals can track real-time patient status through algorithms that analyze vital signs, lab results and other data to detect patients who are deteriorating or predict those at highest risk. When these clinical systems are integrated with a hospital’s communication platform, contextual alerts can be sent directly to the patient’s nurse, physician or entire care team, depending on the situation and associated workflow.

Several years ago, Gartner pointed out that situational awareness is at the heart of the “real-time health system,” which derives clinical and operational intelligence from real-time knowledge of patient context and care team availability. Such knowledge requires that a hospital transform its data into real-time information about the patient situation. By acting on this data, hospitals can determine the right individual interventions, while improving overall operational and clinical care.

The most important component of this real-time health system: a clinical communication and collaboration platform that provides patient-centric context to caregivers on their device of choice. In one example of such a system’s capabilities, if a nurse receives an alert on his or her wearable device or smartphone about a patient getting out of bed, this clinician would also know the patient’s fall risk and weight when considering what level of assistance is needed. This could significantly reduce patient falls, an all too common hazard in hospitals.

Better communication can also safeguard clinician well-being. Clinician burnout is the number three safety concern on the ECRI list. Given the risk of cognitive overload from alerts, alarms, texts, and calls, clinicians would benefit from systems that aid in determining what information requires action now. Triaging tasks is an ever-present part of a busy physician or nurse’s day. An integrated communication platform that has an ability to prioritize work helps turn data from multiple digital systems into timely, actionable information improving clinical workflows and reducing cognitive burden.

Health IT Homepage