DocBookMD

I was shocked by a recent study conducted by the Joint Commission, which reported that miscommunication between caregivers during patient hand-offs plays a role in an estimated 80% of serious preventable adverse events.

In a time when medical professionals are exploring ways to improve quality of care, why haven’t we tackled the simplest and most cost effective way to achieve this? To me, the answer is easy — let’s communicate better.

In this “digital age” where more than 90% of physicians report using a smart phone, why aren’t we leveraging this technology to share patient information throughout the medical community? Smart phones and their apps have incredible capabilities that far surpass our standard mode of communication (eg, pagers and answering services). The iPhone, iPad, and now, Android have revolutionized the way the public communicates by sharing texts, e-mails, photos, and even videos at our fingertips. Why haven’t physicians adopted this, considering our communication has such significant consequences? Perhaps we are inherently afraid of new technology, especially if we perceive that it could make our lives more complicated and less efficient (eg, EMR).