4 Benefits to Improving Collaboration Within a Hospital

A few decades ago, many hospitals began utilizing dry-erase boards in patient rooms to increase patient involvement and communication between hospital staff and patients. Nurses would write personal messages on the dry-erase boards for patients to cheer them up a bit. Or they would write pertinent information for doctors to see quickly without them having to refer to charts, such as medications needed.

Unfortunately, dry-erase boards never lived up to their potential. Nurses don’t have the time to keep them updated. Bigger caseloads, shorter lengths of stay and multiple job duties have reduced the amount of time nurses can spend at the patient's bedside. Keeping a dry-erase board updated from one shift to the next is a challenge in many busy nursing units.  In addition, hunting down lost markers and erasers takes even more time away from patients. Furthermore, dry-erase boards tend to wear out over time and need to be replaced every couple of years, which can become a costly expense.

While dry-erase boards fell short, the concept behind them is sound – to make communication between patients and nurses visual and accessible. That is why hospitals should adapt that concept to a collaboration display.

A collaboration display is an interactive touch display that allows the user to interact with the content displayed on it. Collaboration displays offer a platform for staff to present relevant information and updates, facilitating more efficient communication. By visually showcasing patient medication schedules, discharge details and care plans, collaboration displays contribute to lowering the potential for medical errors. Patients can easily access staff names, enabling them to address inquiries or issues promptly. Ultimately, the utilization of collaboration displays can help patient communication and engagement.

Here are four benefits to using collaboration displays in a hospital:

Enhancing Patient Satisfaction

Collaboration displays can display patient information, including demographics, medical history, current conditions and treatment plans. This ensures that healthcare teams have access to accurate and up-to-date patient data, leading to more informed care decisions.

Traditional methods like dry-erase boards demand ongoing manual updates throughout a patient's stay. Replacing these with collaboration displays streamlines the process of personalizing and revising patient information. This encompasses their most recent vital signs, room contact details, as well as the names and images of their dedicated care team.

Delivering an efficient patient diagnosis

Collaboration displays allow physicians to review data, from X-rays to electronic health records (EHR) efficiently. They enable physicians to digitally interpret patient images. With a few taps, these annotations can be downloaded and sent to the patient or to other members of their care team. Physicians save time they would have spent switching between windows and rummaging through their notes, allowing for faster diagnosis and improving the overall patient experience.

Collaboration displays prove exceptionally invaluable, especially in situations where every moment counts. When the emergency room has a lot of patients, swift and precise communication becomes imperative. Staff members must quickly locate doctors and establish contact. The collaboration displays distributes information everywhere, enabling instant communication with anyone involved. This reduces the time delay caused by the lack of communication.

During critical surgeries, doctors can also consult other experts anywhere in the world through video conferencing in real time.

Boosting Staff Retention

The challenge of retaining nursing staff in the healthcare industry persists as an ongoing concern. However, the utilization of collaboration displays holds the promise of enhancing staff retention by mitigating the burden of tasks and the risk of burnout. By automating and streamlining manual processes, such as record-keeping and medication management, nurses can allocate more of their time to providing direct patient care. This shift contributes to increased job satisfaction and a greater likelihood of staff retention.

Financial Benefits

As staff efficiency and job satisfaction rise, hospitals can reap the benefits by reducing the need for extensive new staff training. The integration of collaboration displays can lead to cost reductions within hospital environments. By reducing reliance on paper-based record-keeping, hospitals can trim expenses associated with paper supplies, storage and retrieval. Additionally, collaboration displays serve as a safeguard against errors and redundant testing, which could otherwise amplify healthcare costs.

Incorporating collaboration displays into hospital environments not only addresses the limitations of the "old ways of doing things" but also capitalizes on technological advancements to drive patient-centered care, staff satisfaction and operational efficiency. By harnessing this technology, healthcare providers foster improved communication, alleviate workload pressures, and furnish superior patient care. Consequently, this leads to better outcomes and the enhancement of patient experiences.

Learn more about Sharp collaboration displays here.