Question

Describe the most suitable healthcare setting for each communication mode (Hint: What healthcare function/action can be better achieved with each communication mode). Provide examples.

Answer 1

Two modes of communication that are most suitable for smooth functioning in a hospital environment are Interhospital and Intrahospital communications.

Interhospital communication is one in which a particular healthcare facility shares information with another facility regarding a patient. This can include the transfer of a patient from one facility to another for specialized treatment, sharing of medical records, and vital medical equipment. This sharing of information and resources can sometimes prove to be a difficult relationship as it can lead to many obstacles in communicating effectively with one another. The sharing of inadequate information can increase treatment costs as it may involve conducting duplicate tests as any treatment based on incomplete test results cannot be performed.

Intrahospital communication is one in which different departments or different staff members in the same medical facility have to maintain continuous communication for the smooth operation of the healthcare facility. Doctors, nurses, lab experts, and pharma operators have to be in continuous communication to provide completely seamless and quality service to the patient, failure of which can lead to an increase in unnecessary treatment costs or even danger to patients.

Example for interhospital communication:

In certain cases, A patient might need a transfer to a different facility to get specialized treatment which might not be possible in the current facility. This transfer can be made possible with the help of smooth interhospital communication between two different facilities. The current facility can initiate a request via mail or call to have a patient transfer to another facility for a certain surgery. The current facility can prepare a well-documented file of the patient with all the necessary info about the patient and can send it to the other facility for registering the patient for transfer. This information should be absolutely correct without any errors or it may lead to an unnecessary increase in treatment costs as some tests or checkups might have to be conducted again.

Example of intrahospital communication:

A person comes to the hospital to get his RBC count checked. He fills his form at the admin desk and proceeds to get his test done. The lab assistant conducts the test and gets the result printed. The assistant didn't review the printed report with the computer generated result before sending it to the assigned physician. There happens to be a printing error in the report and the test result is erroneous. This leads to the person getting wrongly diagnosed by the physician and he leaves with the medication for the wrongly diagnosed issue.

These kinds of errors and omissions can be avoided by practicing healthy intrahospital communication. Physicians, registered nurses, lab experts, and admin staff all have to maintain proper dialogue to maintain the reputation of the facility and also help in building trust in patients and their family members.