How Automating Aspects of Communication Can Give Healthcare Professionals the Space to Focus on Delivering Quality Care

The health industry in the United States is renowned for being complicated and inefficient. Over recent decades, many think-pieces and critiques have emerged citing a range of unnecessary and inefficient factors that have given the industry this somewhat negative reputation. Although there are a number of factors accessibility, cost and complicated billing procedures that can only be rectified by sweeping changes and perhaps even a bit of new legislation, there are wSays health systems can shift their internal procedures to improve upon their reputation and bring the focus back to delivering quality care to patients.

It starts with addressing one of the most essential foundations of any organization: communication. According to a report from the National Institute of Health, inefficient and poor communication practices cost health systems across the United States as much $12 billion annually. In addition to this, a report from JAMA also found that between 20% and 25% of spending within healthcare is wasteful, with the bulk of that - $266 billion - wasted on administrative procedures that overwhelmingly revolve around communication. For clarity, communication in this context refers to time spent on administration, preparing and distributing documentation, preparing presentations and the methods through which hospital personnel, at all levels, receive information and interact with one another.