Miscommunication is a common cause of medical errors and results in 250,000 - 400,000 deaths every year in the United States. Research suggests that medical errors play an even bigger role in preventable deaths in U.S. hospitals than previously estimated and 80 percent of all serious medical errors involve miscommunication. Tools that help medical professionals communicate more quickly, accurately, and collaboratively are critical to saving lives.
Once hospitals have identified specific areas where breakdowns in communication occur along the patient care journey, a number of tools exist to help remedy these challenges using secure, HIPAA-compliant platforms. Platforms built on mobile technology should be given special consideration, given the widespread use of smartphones and the ease of fast communication with mobile devices.
With technology evolving at a rapid pace, healthcare often winds up in a tech deficit, implementing platforms that work in the short term but cost more in the long run. Healthcare tech needs to be developed with a focus on usability and on simplifying processes, rather than making them more complicated. Effective technology solutions for this industry need to focus on solving specific pain points in healthcare.
Read the full report by Pulsara: It’s About Time: Addressing the Communication Crisis in Emergency Healthcare