As an industry that focuses on caring for people’s health and well-being, we need to keep finding ways to improve how we deliver care by harnessing new digital tools for the patients and the staff alike.
And as the world works its way to instant messaging, patients today are now expecting similar digital communication tools to allow them to conveniently and quickly communicate with their doctors, nurses, and other health care providers. To meet these expectations, organisations must consistently adapt to the latest technology innovations to help medical practitioners to deliver the highest quality care to their patients.
How can digital communications tools for your healthcare team improve the way we deliver care?
Communication is critical for all industries. The lack of communication is a recipe for disaster in a project or organisations. And it is a crucial aspect in the healthcare industry such as hospitals, clinics, or aged care facilities that each individual has a role to play when caring for a patient and the necessary assistance that it needs.
And if you’re still communicating with colleagues that get an hour or more for a response, then it’s time for an upgrade. Because there’s a growing demand of utilising communication tools and adapting to the way we are working now.
- Staff are now working in remote locations when organisations have multiple branches or departments
- People work in different schedules to take care of more patients; staff are usually provided with shifts that may differ weekly or monthly depending on their clients.
- Health assistance is not limited to in-hospital care anymore, so nurses or carers are now required to assist patients who cannot travel to the hospital, requiring home assistance for their treatments or doctor’s appointments.
To keep up with the service demands of your organisation, you and your team need to utilise digital tools to stay connected, improve collaboration by reducing workarounds and keep up with assigned tasks for different patients.
In this article, we’ll share the best team communication tools with you to make sure your team is connected, collaborative, communicating, and focused on delivering care to their patients.
Management Software
Management software is an internal network for sharing information, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organisation. This management platform can be utilised for the following:
- Employee and Client Information
- Calendar for shifts and schedules
- Internal Announcements
- Organisational Reports
This is an excellent opportunity to have all your organisation’s details and client records on one platform to avoid confusion of your staff. It is easier to manage than separate applications.
Messaging App
Messaging apps allow your staff to start discussions and conversations instantly. They can easily check on task updates or reach out to other colleagues for questions or assistance. This reduces time arranging meetings, sending emails that might go unnoticed on your mobile phones. There are great messaging apps available online that address your organisation’s needs.
Most of the apps available online lets you do file-sharing for easy access of files and integration of other collaboration applications so you can easily create and assign tasks.
Scheduling App
We at CareVision value time and don’t want days to waste because of unwanted time management! A scheduling app is a perfect partner for your staff in handling their shifts and leaves. This is also an excellent application for your managers managing schedules on a weekly and monthly basis.
When you have a scheduling app in place, you’ll easily have an overview of days with no assigned nurses or carers, and you can spot overworked employees because of a jump-packed shift! This type of app can provide better efficiencies to your employees and improve productivity for all.
If you want to know more about how scheduling software can help your organisation, read here.
Task Manager
You’ll never have to worry about missed appointments or tasks when you have a task management tool for your staff. With a task manager, your managers and your team can quickly check their tasks for the day and see what should be prioritised.
With a list of to-do items, you will be able to check realistic deadlines, check on overdue tasks and reminders such as patient appointments, medication, and other necessary scheduled treatments. There are task managing apps that let you message and ask for updates regarding projects or tasks in a thread to avoid confusion within your teams.
How will we know the perfect digital communication tool for our teams?
Before you invest in great communication tools online, here are some steps to help you get started on finding the perfect application or software for your organisation.
- Know what your organisation needsProducts available online usually have specific target industries wherein they create functions to meet different needs. It is essential to know what your organisation needs before you decide to invest in one. Will it increase staff engagement and improve productivity? Will it make teams more efficient in delivering care services? Does it provide faster response and easier access to information in the company?
These questions need to be answered along with your organisation’s managers to ensure that the digital tools you’ll invest in will be worth it.
- Ask your staff what they needWhen you have figured out your organisation’s current needs to improve communications, it is equally important to know your staff’s needs. Because after all, they’re the ones who’ll be utilising those communication tools, it’s better to know what they think about it, what they’re comfortable with using, and also letting them know what the necessary steps to adapt these tools into their work.
By giving them access to these tools, will it improve their productivity? How long will they need to be trained before they can use these tools in their daily tasks? Will it help us reduce the number of hours allocated for administrative work?
- Workaround your budgetNow that you have chosen the perfect software or application for your staff and the whole organisation, it’s time to check if the product you want to invest in is within your budget. You can also look at reducing expenses in terms of hours allocated to your staff.
- It’s time to implement!
After deciding the digital tools that align with your budget and your staff, the next step is creating the implementation process to ensure that the product will be maximised and that everyone in your organisation can use it comfortably. But you have to take into consideration that this implementation is another task at hand.
You will need to address questions to have a successful implementation because communication is a significant factor in our workplace. Thus changes will create an impact on everyone. How many people will need the training to utilise the application? When can we fully transform into digital communication tools? Do we need in-house IT support for our digital devices?
Adapting to today’s workplace means updating your communication tools. We can no longer rely on a simple email or phone call to achieve the results we want. We must connect digitally with our employees and increase communication across the organisation to ensure our teams are engaged, informed, and effective.
The healthcare industry continues to adapt digitally as it recognises the need for better communication with patients and medical practitioners. This innovation in communication has shown positive outcomes in other industries with faster response, greater efficiency, a more collaborative and engaged workforce, and ultimately better patient care experience.
Learn more on how CareVision can help you set up your organisation’s digital communication tools. Get in touch with us and organise a free demo here.