This post is sponsored by Sprint and is the fourth article in a 12-part series on mobilizing healthcare for improved communication.
A surgeon can perform a complex, minimally invasive medical procedure with state-of-the-art robotic technology. But when she needs to communicate with her colleagues, the doctor is stuck with antiquated phone systems and outdated email clients.
When it comes to technology – not life-saving medical equipment, but the tools used in everyday communication – doctors are sometimes years behind the times. Despite rapid advances in technology (think smartphones, videoconferencing and more), physicians are largely reliant on slow, clunky and inconvenient tech.1
Here are the five worst things about being a doctor – from a technology perspective:
- Communication
In many care settings, this is how medical professionals communicate: A doctor who performed a procedure on a patient in the morning wants to check the patient’s pain level from home before going to bed.2 The doctor opens his laptop and boots up the hospital’s electronic health record system.2 But the patient’s nurse isn’t listed in the system, so the doctor calls the hospital’s main operator (there’s no unit secretary on the night shift).2 When he finally has the nurse’s name, the doctor calls her – only to find she’s with a patient.2
In the age of texting and tweeting, medical professionals still have to jump hurdles – and waste valuable time – communicating with each other.2 That’s because, for many reasons, clinicians don’t have much control over how they communicate.2
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
- Privacy concerns
Imagine the same scenario, but in this case, the doctor knows the nurse’s cell phone number.2 The doctor sends the nurse a text asking about the patient’s pain and the nurse responds that the patient’s pain is at a 7.2
This communication was much simpler, and quicker, than the first example.2 Unfortunately, it constitutes a HIPAA violation – and carries a significant fine.3 Yet doctors and nurses are sometimes forced to risk HIPAA violations when patient safety is on the line.2
- Electronic health record systems
In the long term, electronic health record systems are expected to make medical care more streamlined, efficient and accurate.4 But in the short term, they’re a pain in the neck for doctors.2
It’s inconvenient for doctors to interrupt clinical workflow to put patient data into an electronic health record system.2 The overall benefits of the system are getting lost in the day-to-day workflow of the individual clinician.2
- Antiquated tools
Hospitalists are stuck working with the technology their hospitals provide – and that can be a problem.2 Doctors at one U.S. hospital are tethered to old-fashioned communication tools (remember the phones used only for talking?).2 So doctors have one phone in each pocket: the hospital-issued phone for communicating with colleagues, and their personal smartphone, which they use for reading articles, researching medications and everything else.2
- New technology
The flip side to antiquated technology can be just as disruptive.2 Just about every day, doctors are encouraged to adopt yet another new solution that promises to make their work lives better.2 Yet many of these solutions solve one specific problem, and there’s no thought to how they work together.2 (This is especially prevalent in the smartphone environment.)2
This causes frustration because doctors are left on their own to adopt these different experiences and find ways for them to work together.2
Read the first three articles in this series:
The value of communication coordination among the care team
What are the best ways to handle care transitions?
The communication pitfalls of multidisciplinary approaches to treating patients
- Hospitals lose $8.3 billion using old technology, http://www.usatoday.com/story/cybertruth/2013/05/07/healthcare-technology-cybersecurity-privacy-patient-care/2142739/, March 11, 2015.
- Jamie Brasseal and Mike Detjen of Mobile Heartbeat granted permission for all of their direct quotes and indirect quotes to be used in this article. Interview date: Jan. 16, 2015.
- Integrating Privacy & Security Into Your Practice, http://healthit.gov/providers-professionals/ehr-privacy-security/practice-integration, March 11, 2015.
- Benefits of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), http://healthit.gov/providers-professionals/benefits-electronic-health-records-ehrs, March 11, 2015.
