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How to Make Healthcare Communication as Simple as Coordinating Dinner

Picture of Brittany Means, RN, BSN Brittany Means, RN, BSN : Feb 08, 2018

Healthcare Communication

In my life, for all of the important things -- weddings, holiday events, dinners, etc. -- the first thing that my loved ones and I do is create a dedicated channel for that event, in the form of a group text.

We then build the necessary team by adding everyone involved in planning to that channel.

Then, we communicate. All in one place, all on the same page, all getting the same information as soon as it's available.

Why do we make these group text channels? To ensure that everyone is aware of the details so that 1) we are efficient, and 2) we don't miss anything important.

Allow me to illustrate with a few real life examples that occurred over the past year:

Thanksgiving Dinner

My husband's mom texts him to let him know she's bringing the dressing.

He doesn't tell me.

I cook the dressing ... he forgets his mom told him 3 weeks ago she was bringing the dressing.

We have two dressings at Thanksgiving, and I'm having flashbacks to my days as a patient coordinator when we missed communications that were sent only to one person, and therefore we ended up wasting time duplicating work.

My Brothers Wedding

I need to know what jewelry to bring to wear in the wedding.

I COULD directly message the Maid Of Honor, but I create a group message instead so that:

1) The other girls are aware of this detail that they may have forgotten

2) The MOH doesn't have to message us all individually to let us know the Bride already purchased each of us a pair of earrings.

For all of these "important" things in life, we elect to use technology to our benefit, but for the MOST important things in life (like when lives are actually on the line), we are still stuck in the dark ages.

Why make communication more complicated than it needs to be in healthcare, when we already have the tools we need and which make our lives so much easier in all other areas of life?

Communicating with our teams should be as simple as coordinating Thanksgiving dinner. Just CREATE your dedicated channel, BUILD your teams by adding the appropriate people, and COMMUNICATE. With Pulsara, it's that easy to securely get everyone on the same page.