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Command Center in the hospital (photo: GE Healthcare)
Three Ways To Improve Teamwork And Patient Safety In Hospitals While telemedicine and telecare are currently widely discussed, many other digital solutions have helped hospitals cope more efficiently with the COVID-19-related challenges. Among them, smartphone-based communication systems, clinical collaboration solutions, and command centers. Seamless communication in hospitals How the hospital staff communicates with each other and with patients determines the way the workflows are coordinated. In larger healthcare facilities, this determines the mobilization times
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for emergency teams, which directly impacts patient outcomes. Communication has always been one of the greatest challenges for hospitals. Pagers were supposed to help solve the problem, but their functionality has become too limited to meet current challenges. They don’t ena-
ble two-way communication; their range and ability to integrate with other IT systems are limited. New solutions use mobile phones and additional devices for hands-free communication. Doctors’ and nurses’ work can be coordinated centrally around specific tasks or within organizational units (wards). Employees can communicate with each other and see their availability status. Patients can call the duty nurse just by using the bedside bell. Such a solution has been implemented by the UK’s Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) and Lehigh Valley Hospital (USA). The system can
