2023 State of Healthcare Communication & Clinical Workflows 

2023 State of Healthcare Communication & Clinical Workflows

Survey of the state of healthcare communication and clinical workflows.

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We surveyed over 100 medical and nursing leaders about clinical communication and clinical workflows at their organizations.

The results tell us there’s plenty of room for improvement; reliance on inadequate communication methods create obstacles to care delivery and puts patient safety at risk.

Common Clinical Communication Challenges

Providers find it difficult to communicate across their organizations in real-time.

All

Difficulty communicating with teams outside of unit 57%
Communicating across too many systems 53%
Poorly integrated systems 48%
Knowing when tasks/tests are completed 40%
Difficulty contacting on-call physician 38%

Medical Roles

Difficulty communicating with teams outside of unit 48%
Knowing when tasks or tests are completed 48%
Communicating across too many systems 46%
Poorly integrated systems 46%
Difficulty contacting on-call physician 38%

 

Nursing Roles

Difficulty communicating with teams outside of unit 64%
Communicating across too many systems 60%
Poorly integrated systems 51%
Difficulty contacting on-call physician 34%
Knowing when tasks or tests are completed 32%

 

How Communication Challenges Impact Patient Care

Poor clinical communication reduces staff satisfaction and risks patient safety

All

Staff frustration from slow response times or lack of response 68%
Cognitive overload from too many alerts and notifications 64%
Delays in care 56%
Decreased patient satisfaction 51%

 

Medical Roles

Cognitive overload from too many alerts and notifications 67%
Staff frustration from slow response times or lack of response 62%
Delays in care 57%
Decreased patient satisfaction 44%

 

Nursing Roles

Staff frustration from slow response times or lack of response 74%
Cognitive overload from too many alerts and notifications 60%
Decreased patient satisfaction 58%
Delays in care 55%

 

Inadequate Communication Methods are the Status Quo

The problems healthcare leaders are experiencing are likely due to the prevailing communication methods, which fail to facilitate real-time collaboration on patient care.

Phone Calls

Providers play endless games of phone tag and waste time waiting for return calls. Disjointed communication risks important patient information slipping through the cracks.

Email

Not only is email a HIPAA-compliance risk, but it can't facilitate real-time collaboration: messages get buried in inboxes and email threads quickly become unwieldy.

EHR Texting

Providers play endless games of phone tag and waste time waiting for return calls. Disjointed communication risks important patient information slipping through the cracks.

What can healthcare leaders do?

When addressing the challenges your teams face in delivering care, healthcare leaders need to interrogate the efficiency of their clinical workflows.

The solution: communication tools that optimize clinical workflows

Communication during clinical workflows directly impacts team efficiency and patient outcomes, and yet, care teams continue to rely on outdated and limited communication methods to deliver care. Care teams deserve communication tools that simplify and streamline the care delivery process.

Additional Resources

Learn best practices for improving clinical workflows

Blog Article

Maximizing Efficiency and Quality of Care: Understanding Clinical Workflows

Blog Article

Optimized Clinical Workflows: The Key to Improving Job Satisfaction and Reducing Burnout

On-Demand Webinar

Break Through Bottlenecks: How Sharp Memorial is Modernizing ED Workflows

All Resources

Webinars, Datasheets, Events, Case Studies, Reports & More

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The problems healthcare leaders are experiencing are likely due to the prevailing communication methods, which fail to facilitate real-time collaboration on patient care.