As everyone moves through the daily activities of a hospital or a medical office, your employees should work together like a well-oiled machine. The best way to ensure this happens is with clear, concise communication between staff members.
A workplace that communicates effectively will see success during both regular days and emergencies. As an executive, you should learn how to improve communication in healthcare to improve nursing workflow and customer service.
Emphasize Communication in Training
When employees don’t learn how to communicate between teams or ask for help, they can struggle. A lapse in communication can quickly destroy productivity and cause easily preventable problems. Create in-depth training exercises for new employees that help them learn the chain of command and the people they can contact when there’s an issue. Use those same training exercises to create refresher courses for all employees that they can take once a year.
Keep Up With Communication Technology
Out-of-date technology can prove inconvenient for your staff—advances in technology can make things easier for everyone and connect your systems in ways you may not have considered. Improve collaboration between teams at your facility by equipping security and maintenance staff with high-quality communication technology.
Ensure everyone has access to a two-way radio and that the signal reaches every area of the building. Teach all staff members radio etiquette and the different codes that your building uses to announce emergencies. Your communication technology might even connect to your surveillance network to provide instant updates to security staff.
Hold Regular Meetings To Discuss Strategy
Honing your own communication skills is just as important when it comes to finding out how to improve communication in healthcare. Large or all-hands meetings give your staff an opportunity to provide their input about things going well or things that need work. Use the meetings as an opportunity to discuss client, resident, and patient feedback—both positive and negative—and to reward outstanding employees.
Open yourself to receiving feedback from your employees—don’t scold them for pointing out areas that need improvement. Take their feedback to heart and do what you can to be a role model for improvement in the workplace.