It’s all about patients. The nature of health care as an industry is changing. Health problems that required a lengthy stay in a hospital a decade ago may now be simple outpatient procedures. Health care networks, rather than single providers, are delivering new and diverse services to patients. The population is aging, and increasingly, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Not that long ago, health care organizations were entirely dependent on paper records that made it difficult and costly to quickly assess patients. Health care providers have made significant investments in information technology, but one thing remains the same: patient care has always been at the center of concern in health care. Today, health care organizations are investing in everything from electronic patient records to electronic supply management, with a focus on improving patient care while cutting costs. A single patient may see several physicians or other practitioners from different health care organizations. Several record sets may need to be integrated and exchanged, and any errors could make the difference between life and death.

Health care organizations face a number of communications challenges.

Patient privacy. Patient confidentiality is an important part of all health care business processes. In fact, patient confidentiality is mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). However, the growing diversity of ways to communicate is making confidentiality harder to maintain. E-mails and voice mails are forwarded. Faxes are lost, misdirected, or intercepted. Each puts patient privacy at risk.

Escalating costs. A large hospital may have several hundred IT applications coordinating patient care. Each application needs to be managed and integrated effectively to ensure staff can use them effectively to provide the best patient care. Traditional phone systems are difficult and costly to integrate with other data systems. Multiple technologies and systems mean high costs to ensure that the systems work together effectively.

Multiple sources of patient information. Nurses, doctors, labs technicians, administrative staff and insurance companies all have to communicate effectively to ensure the health and safety of their patients. But many health care organizations are still dependent on separate systems for fax, voice mail and e-mail, as well as information in paper records and databases. Multiple communications tools require staff to manage several sources of information: voice mails, e-mails, databases and paper filing systems for faxes. Each adds time and complexity to the decision-making process.

Lower productivity. Like many service industries, health care organizations have had difficulty keeping up with changes in the way people exchange information. Phone tag with patients and co-workers, overflowing e-mail inboxes, different work schedules in the lab across the globe or across the street, all impede direct, useful communication. Whether it’s fax, voice mail or e-mail messages, current patient data must be available and it must be available quickly. Objectworld products can help health care organizations meet these challenges. ->