RingCentral surveyed 150 healthcare leaders to find out their current communications-related challenges and the direct impact collaboration-enabled care can have on patient engagement, staffing optimization, and overall care coordination.
Collaboration-enabled care is gaining focus
A whopping 90% of respondents believe their current communications platform and process have gaps that need attention. Considering that quality of care is at stake, it’s not surprising that 87% of respondents say prioritizing enhanced collaboration through communication technology is an important initiative to better efficiencies, outcomes, and patient satisfaction. In fact, over half (56%) say it’s a top-three priority.
So, while it’s crystal clear to healthcare organizations that they must improve how they collaborate across multidisciplinary teams and communicate with patients, most of them still have a lot of work to do. The question is, where to start?
Many organizations have begun by aligning new, targeted roles to address these challenges. Titles such as Chief Patient Experience Officer and VP of Patient Outcomes are joining their longer-standing Clinical Informatics peers to assign accountability for prioritizing communications and collaboration improvement within their facilities. Together, they will begin to reimagine how collaboration-enabled care can support their overall patient-centered strategies.
Legacy communications impact the patient experience
Most of RingCentral’s survey respondents feel that a call into their health system is NOT a positive patient experience (PX). Why? Respondents indicate that their current care communications technology/process doesn’t make it easy to support patient scheduling or get patients to the right person or department on the first attempt.
Well over half of survey respondents indicate their current communications technology/process directly impacts HCAHPS scores in three key areas:
- Care team responsiveness—62%
- Nurse and doctor communications—58%
- Clarity of patient communications—55%
Facilitating direct access between scheduling coordinators, support staff, and patients through enhanced omnichannel call routing will increase first-call resolution results and improve patient satisfaction levels—which, in turn, influences facility star ratings and patient revenues.
Limited collaboration tools impact staff satisfaction
Survey findings also strongly identified the need to improve staff experience (SX)—specifically, how substandard collaboration directly impacts work satisfaction. When asked if current communication and collaboration processes/resources contribute to clinician burnout, 50% of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed.
To reduce staff burnout, healthcare leaders must improve clinical efficiency. To accomplish this requires a focus on workflows that demand the most multidisciplinary team collaboration: patient evaluation, treatment, and transfers. Streamlining these workflows with enhanced collaboration capabilities will improve long-standing clinical communication gaps:
- Physician-to-nurse communications
- Increased bedside time with patients
- Improved access to dispersed staff
View full results in RingCentral’s new research report
To learn more about the complete survey results and better understand your peers’ gaps and opportunities, download the full RingCentral Research Report, Collaboration-Enabled Care, now.
Originally published May 13, 2020, updated Oct 19, 2021