1. Purpose Improvement Tools/Methods Limitations / Lessons Learned Results Process Improvement Improving Interdisciplinary Team Communication Chelsea Sherman, Tram Pham, & Alana Sciuto USF Collene of Nursing July 2014  Implementation of smart phone technology will improve efficiency of communicating between nurses and physicians regarding patient’s plan of care.  Time spent by nurses looking up the correct doctor and phone number to contact for each patient, paging that number, and waiting for a reply, can take up a substantial amount of time throughout a nurse’s shift. In addition, technological complications may cause both parties to unclearly receive report of the patient due to malfunction of equipment.  Increased time spent identifying providers and technology communication barriers lead to patient safety concerns.  To address the communication faults that can occur over communicating on the phone, we propose that we switch over to texting via smart phone. This will eliminate the time spent paging and waiting for a response from a physician. This will also improve patient safety because when a physician text a nurse an order he/she can physically see it in writing and he/she can also have it to refer back to if needed. This could help improve any miscommunication regarding plans/orders for patients.  Hospital Budget  Training staff of new communication tool  Limited evidence References Background Team Members  Registered Nurses  Physicians  Unit Coordinators  CNO  CEO Measures  The amount of time spent both contacting a provider and waiting for a response will decrease by 20%.  This will be measured by a restudy of the time survey. Hospitals implementing smart phone technology Average time before vs. after implementation Toronto General Hospital27.6 vs. 11 minutes University of Virginia Health Center 79 vs. 8 minutes Baystate Medical Center20.4 vs. 9.2 minutes Western Hospital36 vs. 10.5 minutes  Results from hospital studies after implementation of smart phone technology.  Process Flow Chart Wu et al, 2010 Rothberg, B. M., Steele, R. J., Wheeler, J., Arora, A., Priya, A., & Lindenauer, K. P. (2012). The Relationship Between Time Spent Communicating and Communication Outcomes on a Hospital Medicine Service. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(2), 185-189. doi: 10.1007/s11606-011-1857-810.1007/s11606-011-1857-8 Whitlow, M. L. (2013). Bringing Technology to the Bedside: Using Smartphone to Improve Interprofessional Communication. ProQuest. Retrieved from http://gradworks.umi.com/35/74/3574432.html http://gradworks.umi.com/35/74/3574432.html Wu, C. W., Morra, D., Quan, S., Lai, S., Zanjani, S., Abrams, H., & Rossos, G. P. (2010). The Use of Smartphone for Clinical Communication on Internal Medicine Wards. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 5(9). doi: 10.1002/jhm.775 Wu, R., Rossos, P., Quan, S., Reeves, S., Lo, V., Wong, B.,... Morra, D. (2011). An Evaluation of the Use of Smartphones to Communicate Between Clinicians: A Mixed-Methods Study. Journal of Medical Internal Research, 13(3). doi: 10.2196/jmir.1655 10.2196/jmir.1655

2. Purpose  Implementation of smart phone technology will improve efficiency of communicating between nurses and physicians regarding patient’s plan of care.

3. Background  Time spent by nurses looking up the correct doctor and phone number to contact for each patient, paging that number, and waiting for a reply, can take up a substantial amount of time throughout a nurse’s shift. In addition, technological complications may cause both parties to unclearly receive report of the patient due to malfunction of equipment.  Increased time spent identifying providers and technology communication barriers lead to patient safety concerns.

4. Improvement tools/Methods  Results from hospital studies after implementation of smart phone technology.  Process Flow Chart

5. Results

6. Process flow chart Wu et al, 2010

7. Measures  The amount of time spent both contacting a provider and waiting for a response will decrease by 20%.  This will be measured by a restudy of the time survey.

8. Process Improvement  To address the communication faults that can occur over communicating on the phone, we propose that we switch over to texting via smart phone. This will eliminate the time spent paging and waiting for a response from a physician. This will also improve patient safety because when a physician text a nurse an order he/she can physically see it in writing and he/she can also have it to refer back to if needed. This could help improve any miscommunication regarding plans/orders for patients.

9. Limitations/Lessons Learned  Hospital Budget  Training staff of new communication tool  Limited evidence

10. References Rothberg, B. M., Steele, R. J., Wheeler, J., Arora, A., Priya, A., & Lindenauer, K. P. (2012). The Relationship Between Time Spent Communicating and Communication Outcomes on a Hospital Medicine Service. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(2), 185-189. doi: 10.1007/s11606-011-1857-8 10.1007/s11606-011-1857-8 Whitlow, M. L. (2013). Bringing Technology to the Bedside: Using Smartphone to Improve Interprofessional Communication. ProQuest. Retrieved from http://gradworks.umi.com/35/74/3574432.htmlhttp://gradworks.umi.com/35/74/3574432.html Wu, C. W., Morra, D., Quan, S., Lai, S., Zanjani, S., Abrams, H., & Rossos, G. P. (2010). The Use of Smartphone for Clinical Communication on Internal Medicine Wards. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 5(9). doi: 10.1002/jhm.775 Wu, R., Rossos, P., Quan, S., Reeves, S., Lo, V., Wong, B.,... Morra, D. (2011). An Evaluation of the Use of Smartphones to Communicate Between Clinicians: A Mixed-Methods Study. Journal of Medical Internal Research, 13(3). doi: 10.2196/jmir.165510.2196/jmir.1655