Overextended staff is the top concern among healthcare IT professionals surveyed recently concerning obstacles to providing better patient care.
Healthcare communications company Avaya conducted the survey, hosted by market research firm Exhibit Surveys, Inc., at the Avaya booth at HIMSS11 Feb. 20-24 in Orlando, Fla. A total of 130 surveys were completed.
Avaya's survey found that respondents focused primarily on staff issues. Asked about the biggest challenge healthcare providers currently face, 32 percent cited “overextended clinical staff spending too much time performing non-patient care activities,” followed by "poor or lack of effective communication among staff," and "bottlenecks in patient flow."
“We're seeing concerns among healthcare technology professionals about staffing and time being spent away from patients, which greatly impacts patient care and efficiency," said Bruce Wallace, Avaya's healthcare practice leader. "To address these challenges head-on, industry professionals are turning to communications solutions that drive faster and more productive collaboration, which makes all the difference in an industry where every second counts."
When asked, "What results do you expect to gain from your technology investments" the majority – 74 percent – cited "improved level of care and response to patients."
Asked what they considered to be the most beneficial value of mobile communications, the majority – 67 percent – chose: “improving patient care by improving response time to patients.”
According to the survey, improving patient care and satisfaction through collaborative communications – which includes mobile communications, automated outreach, and technologies for driving workflows – was top of mind for most healthcare technology professionals.
The survey also asked about video-based communications in the healthcare industry. Survey respondents indicated this technology could make the most significant impact in two key areas – physician consultations and distance telemedicine – both of which tied for first place in terms of impact.
According to Wallace, video adds an important new dimension to the healthcare industry, with group consultations gaining real-time visuals and enhanced document and image sharing capabilities. This can speed and improve collaboration for doctors, medical professionals and patients, he said.
Looking ahead, healthcare professionals were asked which issues facing their healthcare organization would be most important to address in the next three years, considering meaningful use and accountable care requirements.
Survey respondents ranked "communication and workflow integration into healthcare information systems" as the most important, with 95 percent responding "extremely importan"' or "very important." Respondents also ranked automated patient followup and multi-modal collaboration as important.
