Challenges in healthcare communication
Healthcare requires sharing our most sensitive, personal information. To safeguard patient information, the federal government enacted regulations such as HIPAA, which requires hospitals and vendors to actively ensure such data is secure.
Compliance with HIPAA and developing a communication security strategy are significant concerns for healthcare organizations. Alex Brown, director of strategy at healthcare communication technology provider Voalte, says this is pushing many organizations to reconsider their communication policies and systems.
“There’s an ongoing need to ensure hospitals have a solid strategy for secure communication,” he said. “A lot of sites say, ‘I need to address this compliance issue,’ which leads them to a larger conversation about how to look at communication holistically inside and outside of their facility.”
Much of the reinforced need for compliance stems from the increased presence of personal devices such as smartphones and tablets that caregivers use to send and receive PHI via SMS messaging, Mr. Brown says.
Another emerging challenge is the multiple models by which caregivers interact. For example, not all physicians are directly employed by hospitals, so they may be unaware of or unable to meet certain organizational policies. Healthcare organizations may have less stringent enforcement of compliance policies for these physicians than with hospital-employed physicians.
“HIPAA compliance is important, but sometimes it’s difficult to control. Healthcare organizations are not the same as a Fortune 500 company like GE, which can issue a mandate to make sure every employee is compliant,” Mr. Brown says.
Communication is also an infrastructure challenge. Hospitals have been around much longer than the technology they now use, so they weren’t built to handle new modes of communication. “It can be a challenge for a facility to say, ‘If we’re really going to upgrade our communication systems, we need to bring other systems in our infrastructure up-to-date as well.’ A perfect example is Wi-Fi,” Mr. Brown says.
Overall, communication problems can reduce efficiency. If providers can’t communicate, they are severely inhibited in their ability to care for patients, which Mr. Brown adds is often listed as one of the 10 most common causes of sentinel events by The Joint Commission.
What do hospitals need for a secure mobile communication strategy?
To address the key challenges in healthcare communication, hospitals and health systems are developing secure mobile communication strategies.
Mr. Brown says there are two pillars to a good strategy. The first is recognizing the need for communication devices inside and outside the hospital, and developing a strategy to accommodate those devices. While some hospitals foster “bring your own device” (BYOD) programs and some offer corporate-provided devices, others blend the two. A good strategy takes all these scenarios into consideration and unifies them.
“BYOD and shared devices may have different users, but those users still have to communicate on the same platform,” Mr. Brown says. He offers the example of a nurse who comes to work and uses the same communication device every day. Whether it’s a personal device or one provided by the organization, he or she needs and wants to have the device set to certain specifications every time.
The second pillar of a good mobile communication strategy is to be sure new technologies can integrate with existing technologies, including the EMR, patient monitors and nurse call system. “Everything needs to work together. Otherwise, you just implement a solution that is not a tremendous improvement,” Mr. Brown says.
Healthcare communication platforms: What are they, exactly?
A healthcare communication platform provides a standardized means for care teams to communicate with one another across the enterprise. To understand what a communication platform is, it may be helpful to describe what it is not. It is not a single solution, or a technology that provides only one way to communicate. A simple texting app, for example, can’t answer all the communication needs of staff across the entire enterprise.
“Many solutions are simply for secure texting,” Mr. Brown says. “Many vendors and hospitals are realizing these single-point solutions are not enough. You need a comprehensive communication platform that includes, voice, text and alarm and alert notifications for multiple modes of communication.
Similarly, a platform operates on multiple endpoints. A mobile app on a smartphone alone won’t suffice, Mr. Brown says. A communication platform should be accessible at desktop computers, too, where many administrative and other staff typically work.
Mr. Brown offers iMessage, the Apple-based text messaging system, as an example of this multimodal structure in the consumer market. While iMessage originated as a function of smartphones, it has expanded to work on iPads and Mac computers. “It runs throughout the day,” Mr. Brown says. “A healthcare communication platform needs to shadow where consumer products have already gone.”
The second characteristic of a communication platform is that it integrates with third-party systems, and the data doesn’t exist in a silo. Caregivers want a plethora of patient information in one place, such as medications and lab results, and they want to communicate that information easily with their care teams.
Finally, a healthcare communication platform should allow for future innovation. It is not a one-time implementation project; rather, leaders can look holistically at the platform and use it to satisfy use cases other than its originally intended one. Mr. Brown says this type of innovation often happens with EHRs, when clinicians and researchers use data and functionalities on those platforms to develop fall risk scores or measure the risk for other potential adverse events. Development lies in the hands of the users, rather than waiting for vendors to release updates.
Mr. Brown says the main benefit of a healthcare communication platform is connecting users across the care continuum while making patient care more efficient by eliminating separate workflows.
“A platform ensures you can connect the healthcare enterprise and the entire care continuum,” he says. “If my email worked only within my department at Voalte, I would not be able to get much done. I need to be able to communicate with everyone I’m working with, no matter where they are.”
Selecting a healthcare communication platform
Once an organization decides a healthcare communication platform fits its secure mobile communication strategy, it must select the specific platform that meets its needs.
Mr. Brown says a platform should support the three communication processes in healthcare: voice communication, text messaging, and alarm and alert notifications.
Secondly, Mr. Brown underscores the importance of selecting a vendor that has successfully implemented its platform at another healthcare site and has done it at scale. “It’s great to have amazing software, but in healthcare, being able to deploy that software successfully is even more important,” he says.
A well-seasoned vendor is also important for a smooth integration of the communication platform with the third-party systems the organization already uses. “You’re going to struggle if your vendor hasn’t done multiple integrations,” Mr. Brown says.
And, it’s a good sign when a communication platform allows the organization to continue to grow and innovate, even after it is rolled out through the system. “You can’t boil the ocean in one day. You need a roll-out strategy with phases that allow for future growth,” Mr. Brown says, adding that this, too, will be indicative of a vendor’s experience and ability to achieve a successful implementation.
A solution to simplify — not complicate — communication
With the proliferation of BYOD programs and use of smartphones in daily life, an optimal secure communication strategy should incorporate an easy-to-use device that, ideally, the user already owns or knows how to operate.
This was one of the foundational principles leading to the formation of Voalte. The company was founded on the premise of using an existing device — the smartphone — to simplify healthcare communication.
“Our founder, Trey Lauderdale, started the company after seeing the Apple iPhone. He said, ‘Why are we sending nurse call alerts to pagers? We should be sending them to smartphones,'” Mr. Brown says.
Users already understand smartphones. The trick was to introduce that existing device into healthcare while maintaining compliance and supporting security. The goal was to build a healthcare-specific communication platform that isn’t too different from how people communicate in their personal lives, Mr. Brown says.
That familiarity and ease of use of the device can make a difference in patient care and secure communications, as the learning curve is nonexistent. As such, the device can more easily integrate into the existing workflow and allow providers to focus on delivering their best care.
When it comes to healthcare communication, HIPAA compliance, patient safety and workflow efficiency are top of mind, but a strategy to address all three of these elements doesn’t have to be complicated. By leveraging existing knowledge and capabilities, hospitals can combine a secure mobile communication strategy with the right communication platform to develop a path to future success.
