Smartphone‐Enabled Communication System

Previous studies have advocated the importance of effective communication between clinicians as a critical component in the provision of high‐quality patient care.[1, 2, 3, 4] There is increasing interest in the use of information and communication technologies to improve how clinicians communicate in hospital settings. A number of hospitals have implemented different solutions to improve communication. These solutions include alphanumeric pagers,[5] smartphones,[6] e‐mail,[7] secure text messaging,[8] and a Web‐based interdisciplinary communication tool.[9]

These systems have different limitations that render them inefficient and likely inhibit collaborative care. Current systems, such as pagers, rely on the sender to ensure the message was received and are successful in delivering messages approximately 67% of the time.[5, 9, 10] Although alphanumeric pagers and secure text messaging can increase the likelihood of delivery, these messages are often isolated and not easily viewable by the whole care team.[11] Improved systems should also reduce unnecessary interruptions by providing support for both urgent and delayed messages. Finally, messages should be stored and retrievable to enable increased accountability and allow for review for quality improvement initiatives.

It is also important to consider the unintended consequences of technology implementations.[12] Moving communication to text messages and smartphones has the potential to reduce interprofessional relations and can increase confusion if used for complex issues.[10, 13] In this article, we present a system designed to improve interprofessional communication on general internal medicine wards by incorporating these desired features and describe the usage and attitudes toward the system, specifically assessing for effects on multiple domains including efficiency, interprofessional collaboration, and relationships.

METHODS

Intervention

To address issues with communication, we developed a systemClinical Message (CM)that included 2 main components: a physician handover tool and secure messaging module. The focus of CM was to improve communication and information flow among different healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and therapists) through a secure, shared platform.

Physician Handover

The physician handover tool was designed to facilitate the physician handover process at shift change and is used as a patient rounding tool for day‐to‐day management of patients. It is also accessed by nurses and other clinicians to view the physicians' notes and to stay informed on the overall care plan. The tool contains standard elements including a list of patients with the following information on each patient: demographics, diagnosis, code status, medical history, active issues, and discharge plans (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Secure Messaging

Secure messaging was designed around our dominant communication: nurses sending messages to physicians who would then respond. Nurses and other health professionals sent messages to the medical teams by accessing CM, selecting the appropriate patient, and filling out a message template. The system automatically populated the To field with the team assigned to the selected patient. Messaging for each team was centralized around a single team smartphone that was carried 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by a physician on that team. This removed the guesswork of trying to identify the individual physician responsible for that patient. For each message, a subject or issue and content were entered (Figure 2). Logic was also incorporated to reduce the amount of unnecessary interruptions. Senders would choose to send the message immediately as an interrupt message (urgent) for urgent/time sensitive issues or as an allow time to respond message (delayed). For the latter, the message was posted to the system where physicians could check and answer them. Interrupt messages were sent to the team smartphone using the Short Message Service (SMS) protocol. To try and ensure the communication loop on any issues was closed, when a message requested a response and did not receive it, the system sent another message. For urgent messages, a repeat message was initiated after 15 minutes. For delayed messages, the sender defined when they needed a response, typically within 2 to 8 hours. Senders were also able to select the mode of response that would best meet their needs from a workflow perspective: call back, text reply, or to specify that a reply was not required. Senders were also able to verify if the messages were received by the physician's smartphone. Physicians could view the messages within CM and reply. For messages that went to their team smartphone, physicians could respond from the smartphone through a secure Web link.

Figure 2

Because the messages were linked to the patients, they were visible to the entire care team, not just the message sender and recipient. If the care of the patient was transferred from 1 clinician to the next, the new clinician could easily review prior messages to understand recent patient events. The system was accessible through a browser on the intranet. The system regularly pulled patient demographic details such as name, age, medical record number, and location from our electronic medical record through a 1‐way interface. Information from this communication system was not considered part of the medical record but was retrievable.

The system was introduced as the new standard method of communication for nurses to reach physicians for all of the general internal medicine wards and for all medical teams at site 1 on May 2, 2011 and site 2 on June 6, 2011. The system replaced a text‐based Web‐paging system and supplemented the numeric pager carried by residents. Initial training of a half hour was provided to all nurses and residents.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

We describe an implementation of a system to improve clinical communication in hospitals. The system was highly used and was perceived to improve communication by both nurses and physicians. Specifically, users found that the system increased efficiency, accountability, timeliness, and collaboration, but that there were issues with message clarity for complex medical issues.

Other systems and approaches have been implemented to improve communication. These included the use of alphanumeric pagers, e‐mail, secure texting, and smartphones. There is evidence that more advanced systems can improve efficiency for senders.[16] A recent randomized trial of secure text messaging found that it was perceived to be more efficient than paging, but overall usage was low and inconsistent.[8] There is also evidence that smartphones may increase interruptions, worsen interprofessional relationships, and cause issues with professional behavior.[10] Unfortunately, there are a limited number of interventions that improve communication, with some improving efficiency but none demonstrating improved patient‐oriented outcomes.[16, 17] This study evaluated a novel system, with functionality to link communication to patients, and created a system that aligned with the workflow of the clinicians. Messages were linked to the patient, not the sender or receiver, so other clinicians in the patient's circle of care could easily view the communication. Moreover, the system was designed to improve message response rates and allow for nonurgent messages.

Our communication system uses standard, commercially available components (smartphones, SMS), and relatively basic functionality (handover, secure messaging). Important findings are that the current system of paging can be transformed to a more efficient system that users will readily adopt. We found positive effects with components of the system. It appeared to improve efficiency and increase accountability. Accountability is crucial and moves from undocumented conversation to fully documented details of interactions. This can be used for both incident review and to review for quality improvement.

Using the system, physicians perceived that they were bothered by low‐value information, whereas nurses perceived a lack of response, and both found that the system was not ideal for complex messages. The mismatch between what physicians and nurses perceive as important has been attributed to their different timeframes and context.[18] For nurses with an upcoming change of shift, they wanted resolution of issues before handover. A physician on a different ward may not appreciate the context of a nurse having to directly interact with an irate family member. These different perceptions likely contributed to the lack of response to 8.6% of text messages. This is still better than other systems, such as paging, which can be as high as 33%.[10] For nonurgent items, clinicians would ideally check and clear items regularly from the system using a desktop computer, responding within the allotted timeframe. Unfortunately, this never became part of routine physician workflow, likely due to their busy workload, so many physicians would only respond when items became overdue. However, having a method to deal with nonurgent messages may have prevented some interruptions during protected educational times of trainees. The system was also not ideal for urgent or complex items. Complex items can be difficult to convey using the rarified communication medium of text messages.[19, 20] Urgent or complex issues are likely best resolved with a face‐to‐face or telephone conversation.

There are several limitations in our study that should be considered when interpreting the results. It is a study of usage and perceptions after implementation. Although more rigorous study is required to evaluate the effects, we see this as a first step in process improvement. Future research should measure the impact on improving patient care of this system and on patient outcomes such as adverse events. The study and intervention was limited to general internal medicine wards in 2 academic hospital settings where there are frequent rotations of medical personnel. The findings may not be generalizable to other hospital settings.

Future directions should be to further improve on the communication system and to educate and train staff on how to effectively communicate. Survey results showed that although users perceived increased efficiency, there was still significant opportunity to improve. One way to improve would be to have a mobile application in which physicians can easily review nonurgent items. Improvements could also be realized by educating clinicians on the use of the system and providing immediate feedback. Providing feedback to physicians on how well they respond could address nurses' issues around lack of timely response. By creating consensus between nurses and physicians on what is of high and low value to communicate could increase satisfaction for all users.

In summary, we present the usage and perceptions of a system designed to improve hospital communication. We found that there was high uptake, and that users perceived it to improve efficiency, collaboration, and accountability, but it may not be useful for communicating complex issues.

Previous studies have advocated the importance of effective communication between clinicians as a critical component in the provision of high‐quality patient care.[1, 2, 3, 4] There is increasing interest in the use of information and communication technologies to improve how clinicians communicate in hospital settings. A number of hospitals have implemented different solutions to improve communication. These solutions include alphanumeric pagers,[5] smartphones,[6] e‐mail,[7] secure text messaging,[8] and a Web‐based interdisciplinary communication tool.[9]

These systems have different limitations that render them inefficient and likely inhibit collaborative care. Current systems, such as pagers, rely on the sender to ensure the message was received and are successful in delivering messages approximately 67% of the time.[5, 9, 10] Although alphanumeric pagers and secure text messaging can increase the likelihood of delivery, these messages are often isolated and not easily viewable by the whole care team.[11] Improved systems should also reduce unnecessary interruptions by providing support for both urgent and delayed messages. Finally, messages should be stored and retrievable to enable increased accountability and allow for review for quality improvement initiatives.

It is also important to consider the unintended consequences of technology implementations.[12] Moving communication to text messages and smartphones has the potential to reduce interprofessional relations and can increase confusion if used for complex issues.[10, 13] In this article, we present a system designed to improve interprofessional communication on general internal medicine wards by incorporating these desired features and describe the usage and attitudes toward the system, specifically assessing for effects on multiple domains including efficiency, interprofessional collaboration, and relationships.

METHODS

Intervention

To address issues with communication, we developed a systemClinical Message (CM)that included 2 main components: a physician handover tool and secure messaging module. The focus of CM was to improve communication and information flow among different healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and therapists) through a secure, shared platform.

Physician Handover

The physician handover tool was designed to facilitate the physician handover process at shift change and is used as a patient rounding tool for day‐to‐day management of patients. It is also accessed by nurses and other clinicians to view the physicians' notes and to stay informed on the overall care plan. The tool contains standard elements including a list of patients with the following information on each patient: demographics, diagnosis, code status, medical history, active issues, and discharge plans (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Secure Messaging

Secure messaging was designed around our dominant communication: nurses sending messages to physicians who would then respond. Nurses and other health professionals sent messages to the medical teams by accessing CM, selecting the appropriate patient, and filling out a message template. The system automatically populated the To field with the team assigned to the selected patient. Messaging for each team was centralized around a single team smartphone that was carried 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by a physician on that team. This removed the guesswork of trying to identify the individual physician responsible for that patient. For each message, a subject or issue and content were entered (Figure 2). Logic was also incorporated to reduce the amount of unnecessary interruptions. Senders would choose to send the message immediately as an interrupt message (urgent) for urgent/time sensitive issues or as an allow time to respond message (delayed). For the latter, the message was posted to the system where physicians could check and answer them. Interrupt messages were sent to the team smartphone using the Short Message Service (SMS) protocol. To try and ensure the communication loop on any issues was closed, when a message requested a response and did not receive it, the system sent another message. For urgent messages, a repeat message was initiated after 15 minutes. For delayed messages, the sender defined when they needed a response, typically within 2 to 8 hours. Senders were also able to select the mode of response that would best meet their needs from a workflow perspective: call back, text reply, or to specify that a reply was not required. Senders were also able to verify if the messages were received by the physician's smartphone. Physicians could view the messages within CM and reply. For messages that went to their team smartphone, physicians could respond from the smartphone through a secure Web link.

Figure 2

Because the messages were linked to the patients, they were visible to the entire care team, not just the message sender and recipient. If the care of the patient was transferred from 1 clinician to the next, the new clinician could easily review prior messages to understand recent patient events. The system was accessible through a browser on the intranet. The system regularly pulled patient demographic details such as name, age, medical record number, and location from our electronic medical record through a 1‐way interface. Information from this communication system was not considered part of the medical record but was retrievable.

The system was introduced as the new standard method of communication for nurses to reach physicians for all of the general internal medicine wards and for all medical teams at site 1 on May 2, 2011 and site 2 on June 6, 2011. The system replaced a text‐based Web‐paging system and supplemented the numeric pager carried by residents. Initial training of a half hour was provided to all nurses and residents.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

We describe an implementation of a system to improve clinical communication in hospitals. The system was highly used and was perceived to improve communication by both nurses and physicians. Specifically, users found that the system increased efficiency, accountability, timeliness, and collaboration, but that there were issues with message clarity for complex medical issues.

Other systems and approaches have been implemented to improve communication. These included the use of alphanumeric pagers, e‐mail, secure texting, and smartphones. There is evidence that more advanced systems can improve efficiency for senders.[16] A recent randomized trial of secure text messaging found that it was perceived to be more efficient than paging, but overall usage was low and inconsistent.[8] There is also evidence that smartphones may increase interruptions, worsen interprofessional relationships, and cause issues with professional behavior.[10] Unfortunately, there are a limited number of interventions that improve communication, with some improving efficiency but none demonstrating improved patient‐oriented outcomes.[16, 17] This study evaluated a novel system, with functionality to link communication to patients, and created a system that aligned with the workflow of the clinicians. Messages were linked to the patient, not the sender or receiver, so other clinicians in the patient's circle of care could easily view the communication. Moreover, the system was designed to improve message response rates and allow for nonurgent messages.

Our communication system uses standard, commercially available components (smartphones, SMS), and relatively basic functionality (handover, secure messaging). Important findings are that the current system of paging can be transformed to a more efficient system that users will readily adopt. We found positive effects with components of the system. It appeared to improve efficiency and increase accountability. Accountability is crucial and moves from undocumented conversation to fully documented details of interactions. This can be used for both incident review and to review for quality improvement.

Using the system, physicians perceived that they were bothered by low‐value information, whereas nurses perceived a lack of response, and both found that the system was not ideal for complex messages. The mismatch between what physicians and nurses perceive as important has been attributed to their different timeframes and context.[18] For nurses with an upcoming change of shift, they wanted resolution of issues before handover. A physician on a different ward may not appreciate the context of a nurse having to directly interact with an irate family member. These different perceptions likely contributed to the lack of response to 8.6% of text messages. This is still better than other systems, such as paging, which can be as high as 33%.[10] For nonurgent items, clinicians would ideally check and clear items regularly from the system using a desktop computer, responding within the allotted timeframe. Unfortunately, this never became part of routine physician workflow, likely due to their busy workload, so many physicians would only respond when items became overdue. However, having a method to deal with nonurgent messages may have prevented some interruptions during protected educational times of trainees. The system was also not ideal for urgent or complex items. Complex items can be difficult to convey using the rarified communication medium of text messages.[19, 20] Urgent or complex issues are likely best resolved with a face‐to‐face or telephone conversation.

There are several limitations in our study that should be considered when interpreting the results. It is a study of usage and perceptions after implementation. Although more rigorous study is required to evaluate the effects, we see this as a first step in process improvement. Future research should measure the impact on improving patient care of this system and on patient outcomes such as adverse events. The study and intervention was limited to general internal medicine wards in 2 academic hospital settings where there are frequent rotations of medical personnel. The findings may not be generalizable to other hospital settings.

Future directions should be to further improve on the communication system and to educate and train staff on how to effectively communicate. Survey results showed that although users perceived increased efficiency, there was still significant opportunity to improve. One way to improve would be to have a mobile application in which physicians can easily review nonurgent items. Improvements could also be realized by educating clinicians on the use of the system and providing immediate feedback. Providing feedback to physicians on how well they respond could address nurses' issues around lack of timely response. By creating consensus between nurses and physicians on what is of high and low value to communicate could increase satisfaction for all users.

In summary, we present the usage and perceptions of a system designed to improve hospital communication. We found that there was high uptake, and that users perceived it to improve efficiency, collaboration, and accountability, but it may not be useful for communicating complex issues.

Previous studies have advocated the importance of effective communication between clinicians as a critical component in the provision of high‐quality patient care.[1, 2, 3, 4] There is increasing interest in the use of information and communication technologies to improve how clinicians communicate in hospital settings. A number of hospitals have implemented different solutions to improve communication. These solutions include alphanumeric pagers,[5] smartphones,[6] e‐mail,[7] secure text messaging,[8] and a Web‐based interdisciplinary communication tool.[9]

These systems have different limitations that render them inefficient and likely inhibit collaborative care. Current systems, such as pagers, rely on the sender to ensure the message was received and are successful in delivering messages approximately 67% of the time.[5, 9, 10] Although alphanumeric pagers and secure text messaging can increase the likelihood of delivery, these messages are often isolated and not easily viewable by the whole care team.[11] Improved systems should also reduce unnecessary interruptions by providing support for both urgent and delayed messages. Finally, messages should be stored and retrievable to enable increased accountability and allow for review for quality improvement initiatives.

It is also important to consider the unintended consequences of technology implementations.[12] Moving communication to text messages and smartphones has the potential to reduce interprofessional relations and can increase confusion if used for complex issues.[10, 13] In this article, we present a system designed to improve interprofessional communication on general internal medicine wards by incorporating these desired features and describe the usage and attitudes toward the system, specifically assessing for effects on multiple domains including efficiency, interprofessional collaboration, and relationships.

METHODS

Intervention

To address issues with communication, we developed a systemClinical Message (CM)that included 2 main components: a physician handover tool and secure messaging module. The focus of CM was to improve communication and information flow among different healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and therapists) through a secure, shared platform.

Physician Handover

The physician handover tool was designed to facilitate the physician handover process at shift change and is used as a patient rounding tool for day‐to‐day management of patients. It is also accessed by nurses and other clinicians to view the physicians' notes and to stay informed on the overall care plan. The tool contains standard elements including a list of patients with the following information on each patient: demographics, diagnosis, code status, medical history, active issues, and discharge plans (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Secure Messaging

Secure messaging was designed around our dominant communication: nurses sending messages to physicians who would then respond. Nurses and other health professionals sent messages to the medical teams by accessing CM, selecting the appropriate patient, and filling out a message template. The system automatically populated the To field with the team assigned to the selected patient. Messaging for each team was centralized around a single team smartphone that was carried 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by a physician on that team. This removed the guesswork of trying to identify the individual physician responsible for that patient. For each message, a subject or issue and content were entered (Figure 2). Logic was also incorporated to reduce the amount of unnecessary interruptions. Senders would choose to send the message immediately as an interrupt message (urgent) for urgent/time sensitive issues or as an allow time to respond message (delayed). For the latter, the message was posted to the system where physicians could check and answer them. Interrupt messages were sent to the team smartphone using the Short Message Service (SMS) protocol. To try and ensure the communication loop on any issues was closed, when a message requested a response and did not receive it, the system sent another message. For urgent messages, a repeat message was initiated after 15 minutes. For delayed messages, the sender defined when they needed a response, typically within 2 to 8 hours. Senders were also able to select the mode of response that would best meet their needs from a workflow perspective: call back, text reply, or to specify that a reply was not required. Senders were also able to verify if the messages were received by the physician's smartphone. Physicians could view the messages within CM and reply. For messages that went to their team smartphone, physicians could respond from the smartphone through a secure Web link.

Figure 2

Because the messages were linked to the patients, they were visible to the entire care team, not just the message sender and recipient. If the care of the patient was transferred from 1 clinician to the next, the new clinician could easily review prior messages to understand recent patient events. The system was accessible through a browser on the intranet. The system regularly pulled patient demographic details such as name, age, medical record number, and location from our electronic medical record through a 1‐way interface. Information from this communication system was not considered part of the medical record but was retrievable.

The system was introduced as the new standard method of communication for nurses to reach physicians for all of the general internal medicine wards and for all medical teams at site 1 on May 2, 2011 and site 2 on June 6, 2011. The system replaced a text‐based Web‐paging system and supplemented the numeric pager carried by residents. Initial training of a half hour was provided to all nurses and residents.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

We describe an implementation of a system to improve clinical communication in hospitals. The system was highly used and was perceived to improve communication by both nurses and physicians. Specifically, users found that the system increased efficiency, accountability, timeliness, and collaboration, but that there were issues with message clarity for complex medical issues.

Other systems and approaches have been implemented to improve communication. These included the use of alphanumeric pagers, e‐mail, secure texting, and smartphones. There is evidence that more advanced systems can improve efficiency for senders.[16] A recent randomized trial of secure text messaging found that it was perceived to be more efficient than paging, but overall usage was low and inconsistent.[8] There is also evidence that smartphones may increase interruptions, worsen interprofessional relationships, and cause issues with professional behavior.[10] Unfortunately, there are a limited number of interventions that improve communication, with some improving efficiency but none demonstrating improved patient‐oriented outcomes.[16, 17] This study evaluated a novel system, with functionality to link communication to patients, and created a system that aligned with the workflow of the clinicians. Messages were linked to the patient, not the sender or receiver, so other clinicians in the patient's circle of care could easily view the communication. Moreover, the system was designed to improve message response rates and allow for nonurgent messages.

Our communication system uses standard, commercially available components (smartphones, SMS), and relatively basic functionality (handover, secure messaging). Important findings are that the current system of paging can be transformed to a more efficient system that users will readily adopt. We found positive effects with components of the system. It appeared to improve efficiency and increase accountability. Accountability is crucial and moves from undocumented conversation to fully documented details of interactions. This can be used for both incident review and to review for quality improvement.

Using the system, physicians perceived that they were bothered by low‐value information, whereas nurses perceived a lack of response, and both found that the system was not ideal for complex messages. The mismatch between what physicians and nurses perceive as important has been attributed to their different timeframes and context.[18] For nurses with an upcoming change of shift, they wanted resolution of issues before handover. A physician on a different ward may not appreciate the context of a nurse having to directly interact with an irate family member. These different perceptions likely contributed to the lack of response to 8.6% of text messages. This is still better than other systems, such as paging, which can be as high as 33%.[10] For nonurgent items, clinicians would ideally check and clear items regularly from the system using a desktop computer, responding within the allotted timeframe. Unfortunately, this never became part of routine physician workflow, likely due to their busy workload, so many physicians would only respond when items became overdue. However, having a method to deal with nonurgent messages may have prevented some interruptions during protected educational times of trainees. The system was also not ideal for urgent or complex items. Complex items can be difficult to convey using the rarified communication medium of text messages.[19, 20] Urgent or complex issues are likely best resolved with a face‐to‐face or telephone conversation.

There are several limitations in our study that should be considered when interpreting the results. It is a study of usage and perceptions after implementation. Although more rigorous study is required to evaluate the effects, we see this as a first step in process improvement. Future research should measure the impact on improving patient care of this system and on patient outcomes such as adverse events. The study and intervention was limited to general internal medicine wards in 2 academic hospital settings where there are frequent rotations of medical personnel. The findings may not be generalizable to other hospital settings.

Future directions should be to further improve on the communication system and to educate and train staff on how to effectively communicate. Survey results showed that although users perceived increased efficiency, there was still significant opportunity to improve. One way to improve would be to have a mobile application in which physicians can easily review nonurgent items. Improvements could also be realized by educating clinicians on the use of the system and providing immediate feedback. Providing feedback to physicians on how well they respond could address nurses' issues around lack of timely response. By creating consensus between nurses and physicians on what is of high and low value to communicate could increase satisfaction for all users.

In summary, we present the usage and perceptions of a system designed to improve hospital communication. We found that there was high uptake, and that users perceived it to improve efficiency, collaboration, and accountability, but it may not be useful for communicating complex issues.