Survey: 1% of Healthcare Communicators Feel Prepared to Explain ACOs to Patients

Although three-quarters of Society of Healthcare Strategy and Market Development members consider communication "very" or "extremely" important to the overall success of an accountable care organization, only 38 percent felt adequately prepared to communicate the initiative to internal and external audiences, according to a recent blog post from healthcare communications firm Jarrard Philips Cate & Hancock.

ACOs and other transformations within care delivery call for deliberate and clear communication efforts from providers, but only 10 percent of survey respondents said they feel prepared to communicate the change to internal audiences. More distressing is that 1 percent said they feel prepared to communicate it to patients.

"What the survey found is that those who felt unprepared to communicate felt they either did not understand the accountable care venture themselves, did not feel expert enough, did not understand what the model would be or did not understand the impact on their stakeholders," Kim Fox, vice president of Jarrard Philips Cate & Hancock, wrote in the post.

Ms. Fox said the first step is for communicators to become experts in accountable care "in general and what your hospital is doing about it specifically," according to the post. Ask questions and read any and all accountable care-related materials possible. This can help ensure the communicator is in the know rather than struggling with how to communicate these concepts to internal and external audiences, as well as patients.

More Articles on Hospitals and Communication:

Think Before You Tweet: How Employees' Usage of Social Media Could Damage a Hospital
Stratify and Manage Your Emergency Patient Populations: The Importance of Streamlined Follow-up Communication
6 Tips for Underdogs to Keep Up With Competition



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