The Communication Pitfalls Of Multidisciplinary Approaches To Treating Patients

This post is sponsored by Sprint and is the third article in a 12-part series on mobilizing healthcare for improved communication.

Scouring WedMD might be a great way to self-diagnose all manner of ills. But the health news and advice website – and the general proliferation of medical information online – could also be one of the reasons why healthcare has become so specialized.1

Patients have more access to medical information than ever. These well-educated consumers want specialist doctors.1 They want a cardiologist to manage their heart disease, a hypertension specialist to monitor their high blood pressure, and a nutritionist to get them on the best diet.

This means that patients – especially those with serious and chronic diseases –might see more than a half-dozen specialists during their hospital stay.1 And these providers are in addition to the primary and attending doctors, various nurses and assorted techs buzzing through the room.2

While it’s tough to fault anyone for advocating for the best medical care for themselves or a loved one, the growth of multidisciplinary patient care can lead to a host of problems.1 For instance, it’s difficult for a caregiver to reach a specialist immediately, both because it’s tough to know who to contact and even tougher to locate them.2

With so many providers treating a single patient, communication between specialists becomes more important than ever.1 Back when one physician was responsible for a patient’s care – before the healthcare system became so fragmented – communication was simpler and more fluid.1

Now, with so many specialists involved in a patient’s care – and so much more information that needs to be shared – there’s a massive handoff between physicians.1 The need to communicate about a single patient is more important than it once was.1

Currently, a physician leaving a shift will call his replacement to discuss the patients he’s handing off.2 These conversations, which include discussions of patient medications, status and more, can last more than an hour.2 And, all the while, the new doctor is taking handwritten notes.2

The handoff process isn’t much better for nurses, who get printouts about their patients and make handwritten notes in the margins.2

Technology that could help providers with these transitions is improving, but it’s not evolving as fast as many clinicians had hoped.1 While hospital electronic medical record systems have provided the main way to track this shared information, the systems’ capabilities are still limited.1 Ubiquitous access to smartphones helps, but privacy concerns and other issues abound.1

In healthcare, so many processes are still manual.1 There’s a lot of room for automation toward the goal of reducing medical error and making the entire caregiving process more efficient.1

Read the first two articles in this series:

The value of communication coordination among the care team

What are the best ways to handle care transitions?

                                                                                                                                                     

1. James Webb, vice president of strategic accounts for Mobile Heartbeat, granted permission for all of his direct quotes and indirect quotes to be used in this article. Interview date: Feb. 5, 2015.

2. Jamie Brasseal, vice president of sales and marketing for Mobile Heartbeat, granted permission for all of his direct quotes and indirect quotes to be used in this article. Interview date: Feb. 5, 2015.

3. The Problem of Fragmentation and the Need for Integrative Solutions, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2653966/, March 2009

4. How Smartphones Put Your Practice in Danger, http://www.poweryourpractice.com/medical-technology-trends/how-smartphones-put-your-practice-in-danger/, March 12, 2015.