Hospitals of all sizes face a variety of challenges, both internal and external, around day-to-day operations. Better communications can help solve a number of these challenges, from saving costs to improving patient outcomes.
To define your business case, start by assessing the specific needs you want your UC solution to address.
Drivers behind the demand for UC
See how unified communications enable employees to improve patient care
Hospital
PerformancE
and why now?
Quality patient care depends on colleagues sharing vital information – from patient records and reports to triage data and consults. But communications within hospitals can be fragmented; departments are spread apart and it’s
easy for messages to get lost in transit between departments.
Communication delays can be more than just frustrating in healthcare,
they can also compromise patient safety. It’s essential that staff have the tools they need to effectively communicate during critical moments. That’s why unified communications are making a huge impact on hospital operations today – providing a secure way to share documents, images, and instant messaging giving enhanced visibility from anywhere, at any time.
By bringing together various forms of communication into a single UC platform, hospitals can save time and money, while enhancing patient care.
The way we work – and how hospital teams and patients interact – has changed dramatically. Is your communication technology helping you keep pace with the times?
• Messaging
• Video
• Conferencing
• Voice
• Email
• Chat/IM
UC solutions can integrate the following, commonly used applications:
Integration requirement
Productivity needs
Integration requirement
• Telephony standardization
• Clinical integration
• Provider acquisitions
Productivity needs
• Care coordination
• Treatment efficiency
• Staff access
Regulatory demands
• HCAHPS
• HIPAA / HITECH
•
Local Regulatory Patient Data Protection Acts and GDPR
• HRRP
How UC improves hospital performance
Now that you understand the common applications for UC and have assessed your specific needs and the business case for your hospital,
Patient engagement
Staff collaboration
Clinical workflow
engagement
Patient
All healthcare providers want to do what’s best for their patients.
Ensuring that patients follow discharge orders, attend follow-up appointments and engage in other post-treatment activities is critical
to improving patient outcomes. But with the huge demands of modern healthcare, it can be difficult for staff to stay in contact with patients.
By using technology strategically, healthcare providers can foster a much deeper level of engagement with patients, leading to improved preventative care as well as more effective treatments and aftercare.
Digital scheduling
Automated notifications
Digital scheduling
UC can be integrated into patient portals to provide scheduling features
•
Makes scheduling appointments simple and efficient for patients who want to self-serve
•
Offers patients greater flexibility
•
Result
Automated notifications
UC can automate outbound reminder calls and other notifications, for example reminders to participate in preventative care initiatives
•
Patients receive timely reminders for appointments
•
Result
Increases patient satisfaction
•
Result
Healthcare providers proactively engage patients and re-admission rates are lower
Result
Patients are more engaged and more likely to keep appointments
Business case support
Business case support
Effective and timely appointment reminders minimize no-shows, saving time and costs
Engagement with preventative care and follow-up appointments can improve clinical outcomes and lower re-admission rates, reducing pressure on services
Greater contact and support from healthcare providers can increase patient satisfaction
Optimizing workflows empowers healthcare staff to make smart decisions, leading to better outcomes for patients and greater employee satisfaction.
Fostering efficient, secure collaboration between your staff can optimize information exchange and improve the quality of your patient care. After all, when it comes to delivering healthcare, every second counts.
collaboration
Staff
Work-life balance
Multi-modal collaboration
Business case support
Work-life balance
UC keeps staff connected with the same user experience whether they work on mobile or desktop
•
Clinicians enjoy a dual persona: one device, two numbers – work and personal, making
it easier for staff to manage their work-life balance
•
Hospitals can leverage Wi-Fi versus carrier networks for mobile UC usage
•
Result
Result
Hospitals keep staff free to be where they need while reducing expensive cell/mobile costs
Multi-modal collaboration
UC enables staff with multiple tools that improve team access and collaboration efficiency
•
Staff can update their availability and preferred notification medium (i.e., text vs. phone call)
•
Hospitals can improve their workflow efficiency, reducing delays caused by phone tag and related issues
•
Result
Result
Real-time team collaboration and reduced information exchange latency
Business case support
of patients would like to be able
to text their healthcare provider
1
1.Weiner (2021) COVID-19 and the Rise of Texting in Healthcare. Medical Economics.
of adults used telemedicine
in the last year
2
2. Lucas & Villarroel (2022) Telemedicine Use Among Adults: United States, 2021. CDC.
of medical students agreed mobile devices enabled better coordinated patient care
3
3. Hitti et al (2021) Mobile device use among emergency department healthcare professionals: prevalence, utilization and attitudes. Nature.
percent of nurses said using mobile devices improved cohesion and team work
3
3. Hitti et al (2021) Mobile device use among emergency department healthcare professionals: prevalence, utilization and attitudes. Nature.
The delivery of patient care involves many processes from patient diagnosis to discharge. The ability of hospitals to streamline their clinical workflow throughout each patient encounter is critical.
workflow
Clinical
Business case support
Business case support
Shorten average discharge times and improve patient perceptions of care and satisfaction
Elevate patient experience and quality of care, reduce re-admission rates
Enhance coordinated, transitional care programs with greater collaboration tools and features
Reduce workflow delays that occur at the transition of care points with improved staff collaboration
Effective and timely appointment reminders minimize no-shows, saving time and costs
Engagement with preventative care and follow-up appointments can improve clinical outcomes and lower re-admission rates, reducing pressure on services
Greater contact and support from healthcare providers can increase patient satisfaction
Care coordination
Patient care planning
Care coordination
UC supports complex care coordination workflows: patient discharge and transfer/hand-offs
•
Beyond phone calls,
case managers can engage discharged patients through multiple UC channels
•
Frequent, important collaborations that occur prior to and during patient transitions are more efficient
•
Result
Result
Care coordination staff are empowered to foster patient-centered, accountable care
Patient care planning
UC supports critical care planning workflows:
patient evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment decisions
•
Bedside clinicians can efficiently reach other dispersed specialists and remote stakeholders
•
Secure, on-the-fly care planning meetings can be easily created and joined from any device
•
Result
Result
Care teams engage within a single collaboration solution and realize care planning efficiencies
of UC
An overview
deployment options
Now that you have built your business case to justify how UC will improve hospital performance, it’s important to understand and decide the most optimal UC deployment option for your hospital.
On-site
Cloud
Hybrid
On-site
• Hospital fully owns and operates the solution
Cloud
Applications hosted remotely, run either by the UC provider or a hosting partner
•
Hospital consumes the service as a monthly subscription expense
•
Cloud provider manages the service, relieving IT of most or all network-related tasks
•
Hybrid
A mixed deployment with some UC elements remaining on-site and others hosted in the cloud
•
What to look for in a UC partner
What to look for in a UC partner
The flexibility to support on-site, as well as public, private and hybrid cloud-based scenarios, from a single solution that is easy to deploy,
manage and use
•
•
The ability to provide an enterprise-grade telephony and UC experience
•
A user experience for staff and patients that is intuitive, simple and secure, no matter where their UC service resides
•
Licensing that makes it easy to add features, applications and new users to support staff growth and evolving collaboration needs
•
The UC solution should seamlessly integrate with other healthcare systems and applications to make life easier for IT
•
A proven, reliable brand and reputation in the marketplace
Finding the best fit for your hospital
More and more hospitals are embracing UC to improve collaboration, productivity and overall performance. If you’re looking to step up your communications and explore all the benefits UC can deliver, contact the experts at Mitel today.
US: 1.844.YES.MITEL | UK: +44 1291 430 000
or visit
mitel.com/solutions/industry/healthcare
Regulatory demands
•
Flexible and competitive pricing
let’s explore how
UC can improve your hospital performance in these three key areas:
Why unified communications,
UC solutions can integrate the following, commonly used applications:
How UC improves hospital performance
As patients become more empowered to influence the care they receive, modern healthcare is increasingly patient-led. In this landscape, proactive, service-focused patient communications are mission critical.
With the capability to seamlessly integrate collaboration applications,
no matter the device or location, unified communications (UC) can improve patient engagement, staff collaboration and overall hospital productivity.
Read on to learn how UC can improve your hospital performance.
