Steven Wishart, head of healthcare, UK at Mitel, writes that disconnected communication puts patient care at risk.
Healthcare organisations are balancing workforce shortages, rising operational costs and growing levels of staff burnout, while also responding to increasing patient demand driven by ageing populations, making the need for effective communication between individuals and departments crucial for managing intense workloads.
New research has revealed that 62% of healthcare organisations experience downtime due to connectivity issues. With 215 NHS trusts in England alone, and the NHS planning to build smart connected healthcare environments, IT issues no longer solely affect IT.
The reality is that any interruption to a healthcare organisation’s network is no longer solely an operational inconvenience. In fact, any communication failure can now halt diagnostics and monitoring, or treatment and, consequently, pose a significant risk to vulnerable patients.
Supporting employees with the rollout of complex communication tools remains a persistent issue in the healthcare sector. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of healthcare professionals report that they receive insufficient training when new technology is introduced. As a result, many lack the confidence needed to effectively use new systems in their daily work, which can create siloes and delays when teams have trouble getting access to patient records or coordinating across departments.
Too many tools
Alongside a lack of resources, healthcare employees struggle with or are even reluctant to adopt new technologies and systems. In fact, the same survey found 63% of healthcare employees are hesitant to embrace new tools, often due to the growing number of communication platforms that are being used across healthcare organisations. Two-thirds (66%) of healthcare professionals admitted to feeling burdened by too many tools, yet 64% say they lack access to communication technologies that are tailored to their specific roles. This creates a disconnect between the number of platforms available and the practical needs of frontline employees.
The consequences of this fragmentation extend further than just internal workflows. In fact, when healthcare professionals have to navigate multiple systems or rely on outdated communication tools, the effects can and will be felt directly in patient care.
This is especially exacerbated in time-sensitive situations such as emergency admissions or when clinicians need quick access to patient records or test results. When communication systems are outdated or poorly integrated, critical information may not reach the right teams in time. As a result, treatment decisions could be delayed, even leading to missing or misinterpreted information.
Fortunately, this new research already highlights a shift in priorities among healthcare leaders, who are now increasingly looking to invest in technologies and workflows that directly support frontline staff and patient care. As a matter of fact, on average, 60% of healthcare IT decision makers say they now prioritise workflows designed to empower healthcare professionals, reflecting a broader recognition that digital tools must simplify day-to-day clinical work, rather than complicate it.
That being said, investment in new technologies alone isn’t always enough. In order to truly improve care delivery, organisations should be thinking about modernising and integrating communication tools within clinical workflows from the outset. Without this, fragmented systems can create operational gaps that significantly impact coordination and limit overall visibility, which will, ultimately, harm the patient experience.
The right information at the right time
This is particularly obvious in emergency and critical care environments, where 68% of healthcare leaders are prioritising improvements to workflows. In high-pressure settings such as these, it’s vital that communication within and across different departments is seamless, to ensure that clinicians have access to the right information at the right time.
More importantly, though, the need for seamless collaboration and increased efficiency has to extend beyond the emergency settings. Already, healthcare leaders are increasingly focused on improving everyday operational workflows, with 59% of decision makers now targeting nursing and inpatient care processes to better support daily clinical operations while also investing in public health and preventative care workflows. By improving coordination across different care pathways and departments, healthcare providers can reduce inefficiencies and avoidable trips to A&E, close operational gaps and move toward a proactive, patient-centred model of care, which will better support long-term outcomes.
Ultimately, modernising healthcare systems will require more than simply introducing new digital tools and replacing legacy ones. Organisations must ensure that their communication technologies are not only reliable, secure and fully integrated into clinical workflows, but also that their teams are fully trained and confident in using them, otherwise collaboration across departments may remain fragmented and inefficient. When implemented thoughtfully, however, modern communication systems can streamline collaboration and reduce operational friction, but most of all, ensure that patient safety remains central through every stage of digital transformation.
