Friday, October 27, 2017

Communication in Healthcare

Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States.  While patient safety efforts have gained momentum over the years, we still have a long way to go. One important area of patient safety for healthcare administrators to consider is effective communication.

Where should communication efforts focus?  Patient safety improves when we improve both staff communication and patient/healthcare professional communication.  Some barriers to affective communication include:

Environmental:
1.  Competition for time – healthcare professionals are pressed for time in many ways.  Productivity requirements, multi-tasking, and emergencies can create stressful environments that reduce effective communication.
2.  Competition for attention – we live in a fast-paced world where technology often competes for personal attention.  Managing the use of technology can impact the ability to be an effective listener.
3.  Managerial philosophy – administrators  set the tone for proper communication in the healthcare environment.

Personal
1.  Socioeconomic background – various backgrounds can result in communication breakdowns.  Healthcare professionals and patients do not always come from the same background, which creates a rift in contextual knowledge.
2.  Previous experiences – patients with negative previous experiences in healthcare settings might have difficulty with trust, which can result in a lack of proper communication
3.  Cultural background – healthcare providers in diverse communities face cultural differences that can cause communication breakdowns.
4.  Language Differences – lack of trained interpreters can result in communication difficulties.
5.  Sensory Issues – vision difficulties and hearing loss impact the ability to communicate properly with patients.

What can we do to improve overall communication in the healthcare setting?  Consider the above list of barriers and choose one or two that is a critical issue in your healthcare setting.  Brainstorm ways to improve communication efforts and implement one or two new policies at a time.  Be sure to keep the new initiative as simple as possible.  After a set amount of time, evaluate the new policy to see if it had an adverse or positive impact on overall communication efforts.  Eliciting feedback from both staff and patients is the best indicator of overall improvements.

For more information, please see:
  


Contributed by Valerie Connor, MA CCC-SLP; MS CHES, Faculty at Saint Joseph's College

Monday, October 02, 2017

Emergency Preparedness


Steve Chies, Program Manager of the Long-Term Care Administration Program at Saint Joseph's College, has written an excellent blog about being prepared in the face of hurricanes and other emergencies!  Check it out at http://seniorcareleadership.blogspot.com/