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The importance of barriers to communication
The importance of barriers to communication
Barriers of communication importance
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Due to the dramatic increase in health care cost, health care experts advocates a team based care model in which health providers communicate and work together to meet the needs of patients, especially those with chronic conditions. Traditionally, patients visit multiple specialists, pharmacists, primary care doctors for different health issues. This norm has resulted in creating a complicated communication gap between health providers, as primary caregivers often are clueless to the other conditions or complications the patients have, confusing patients’ ability to follow clinical decisions, hence increasing hospitalization rates. In order to better serve patients’ needs, reduce hospitalization rates and ultimately reduce healthcare cost,
As healthcare becomes more and more complex due to growing fields of study as well as advances in technology, each healthcare provider, whether it be specialists, primary care physicians, or even emergency room doctors, have limited time with each patient. The patient may receive different recommendations from each professional in order to produce a better lifestyle for that patient however this care is not coordinated thus the patient becomes confused as to how to proceed.
The interprofessional team model is a group comprised of various healthcare disciplines working together towards common goals to meet the needs of the patient population. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines interprofessional collaboration in healthcare as occurring “when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds provide comprehensive services by working with patients, their families, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care across settings” (WHO, 2010, p.13). In my final practicum at I have experienced interprofessional collaboration, while involved with the methadone program at Rosthern Hospital. Nurses have an important role in the methadone program, and the involvement of nurses in the program
Collaborative partnerships, among physicians and case managers, add value to the patient care by orchestrating care progression and coordination, supportive decision-making and cost-effective choices. The interaction of the case managers with multiple departments in a health system allows open communication, resulting in quality metrics demonstrating value in areas such as length of stay, observations, accounts receivable, and appeals or denials of patient care (Miodonski 2011). For instance, a patient presents with a myocardial infarction and a hospitalist orders an upper gastrointestinal series that is not necessary. The case manager in this particular situation seeks the necessity of the tests, preventing unnecessary testing and additional length of stay, ultimately improving the patient’s care and progression. Although hospital costs are avoided in this example, more importantly the case manager coordinated efficient movement and progression of care resulting in improved quality and accountability (Daniels & Frater 2011). There is no room for confusing managed care with case management, as managed care equals cost containment programs mandated by concrete systems. Case
Leading up to the collapse of the Caregroup, a researcher on the CareGroup network started an experiment with a knowledge management system application. The software was designed to locate and automatically copy information across the network. The researcher left the software up and running in its initial configuration. The software hadn’t been tested for the environment and began copying data in large volumes from other computers. By the afternoon of November 13, 2002 (the day of the collapse) the software was moving large terabytes of data across the network.
rofessionals from different disciplines collaborating to provide care to patients. Effectively coordinated and collaborative inter-professional teams are essential to the care and treatment of patients (Rowlands & Callen, 2013; Doyle, 2008; Ruhstaller, Roe, Thürlimann & Nicoll, 2006; Simpson & Patton, 2012, p. 300). Communication is a process of conferring information between individuals through use of speech, writing or various other means, and is critical to the success of a multidisciplinary team (MDT) (Higgs, McAllister & Sefton, 2012, p. 5; Rowlands & Callen, 2013; Sargeant, Loney & Murphy, 2008). An MDT must use multiple strategies to enhance communication and ensure their success (Doyle, 2008). An effective MDT generates opportunities that benefit healthcare, which is the reason for the recent dominance of inter-professional care in health practice (Simpson & Patton, 2012, p. 300; Rowlands & Callen, 2013). Many barriers prevent effective communication within inter-professional teams. Lack of communication within MDTs presents challenges to their success, leading to numerous consequences, including the failure of the MDT (London Deanery, 2012; Sargeant et al, 2008). Communication between professionals is the key factor underpinning the potential success or failure of inter-professional teams, the outcome of the functioning of MDTs will either benefit or impair care of patients.
“Physicians and other health care professionals all agree on the importance of effective communication among the members of a health care team. However, there are many challenges associated with effective interprofessional (between physicians and other health care providers) communication, and these difficulties sometimes lead to unfavourable patient outcomes” (Canadian Medical Protection Association, 2011 p. 11).
The healthcare world has simply grown too large, too quickly and, as a result, has forgotten the reason behind which it stands: the patient. Continuity of care is in dire need of repair and without effective communication and coordination of care, the problem will not be corrected.
The demand of a constantly developing health service has required each professional to become highly specialised within their own field. Despite the focus for all professionals being on the delivery high quality care (Darzi, 2008); no one profession is able to deliver a complete, tailored package. This illustrates the importance of using inter-professional collaboration in delivering health care. Patient centric care is further highlighted in policies, emphasising the concept that treating the illness alone whilst ignoring sociological and psychological requirements on an individual is no longer acceptable. Kenny (2002) states that at the core of healthcare is an agreement amongst all the health professionals enabling them to evolve as the patient health requirements become more challenging but there are hurdles for these coalitions to be effective: for example the variation in culture of health divisions and hierarchy of roles. Here Hall (2005) illustrates this point by stating that physicians ignore the mundane problems of patients, and if they feel undervalued they do not fully participate with a multidisciplinary team.
In an interview with a staff nurse (S.N), the main problem within patient communication included lack of patient’s (and family) involvement/willingness in planning cares. The staff nurse emphasized how “Patients often feel overwhelmed and do not want to participate. But, it is important for patients to be involved in their care for better outcomes” (S.N., personal communication, February 5, 2014). The staff nurse’s statement is supported by Evans (2013) whom remarked “better-informed patients avoid unnecessary care and frustration”.
In the article by the American Nurses Association (2012), “Position statement: Care coordination and registered nurses’ essential role”, teamwork was defined as a partnership with health care providers, patients, and families to provide health care needs. An example would be, when an elderly patient presents to the emergency room with confusion, the health care team will do what is necessary to diagnosis this patient. The Certified Nurse Assistant may take the patients vital signs, the Registered Nurse will obtain the urine specimen to assess for a urinary tract infection (UTI), and the physician will determine if it is an UTI, what antibiotic, and treatment will be needed.
Existing research has demonstrated that patients, families, and health care providers perceive many advantages to a multispecialty clinic approach for multisystemic disorders. First, in a review of multispecialty clinic operations, Makary (2011) explains that a principal benefit of a multispecialty clinic is their intrinsic ability to diagnose critical problems early on in the disease process. These clinics also have the potential to intervene before further disease progression. Here, patient safety is improved when all treatment options are discussed among multispecialty team members, rather than depending on accurate and expeditious transmissions of medical communication between separate clinicians. In this way, multidisciplinary teams intend to make a complex health care system safer and more navigable for the patient (Makary, 2011).
The patient may need assistance caring for himself following discharge from the hospital. The daughter lives too far to assist her father on a daily basis. The case worker needs to determine how much the daughter is willing to assist her father during the transition. The daughter may be willing to become her father’s caregiver during the initial recovery period. She would also be a good support system by providing medication reminders, encouraging medication compliance, dietary restriction compliance and promoting positive health behaviors.
The more health care professionals collaborate, the more knowledge is used, and patient safety can be maintained. Communication is related to interprofessional collaboration, because health care professionals collaborate with each other about the patient through communicating with each other. “Collaboration among nurses, physicians, and other members of the care team can improve the outcomes of care for patients” (Engel & Prentice, 2013; IOM, 2010).
In today’s health care organizations, fewer and fewer individuals are working as solo practitioners ; instead, health care is increasingly delivered through teamwork, and teams are a vital component in health care organizations(McConnell,2006). Bauer and Erdogen (2009) define a team as a “cohesive coalition of people working together to achieve mutual goals”. (p.213). According to McConnell (2006) , teams are united by a shared purpose , regardless of the team’s type, composition, degree of performance, or reason for being. In health care organizations, teams are utilized by leaders to address problems and perform tasks. McConnell (2006) states that teams can benefit the organization because they provide greater expertise, enhance morale, improve personnel retention, increase flexibility, and create synergy in the workplace..
Communication and collaboration are an integral part of interprofessional health care teams. There could be possible barriers to communication and collaboration that could affect the entire team’s success. Personal values and expectation, personality differences, culture and ethnicity, and gender could affect how some individuals respond according to a patient’s care or needs(O’Daniel, 2008). For example, if someone comes from a background where they refrain from being assertive or challenging opinions openly, it could be difficult for that person to speak up if they think differently from the other team members. The differences in language and jargon can also be an obstacle to teams especially if members are not familiar with a specific type