1. Professionalism/Customer Service in the Health Care Environment
Overview of Communication
Relevant to Health IT
Welcome to Professionalism and Customer Service in the Health Care Environment, Overview of Communication Relevant to Health IT. In this unit, we’ll be giving you an overview of communication topics relevant for those working in health information technology.
Lecture a
This material (Comp 16 Unit 3) was developed by The University of Alabama at Birmingham, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under Award Number IU24OC This material was updated in 2016 by Bellevue College under Award Number 90WT0002.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 4.0

2. Overview of Communication Relevant to Health IT Learning Objectives
Explain the purpose and goal of professional communication
Describe what is meant by effective communication
Discuss characteristics of ineffective communication
Identify communication needs of common roles in health care
The objectives for Overview of Communication Relevant to Health IT are to:
Explain the purpose and goal of professional communication.
Describe what is meant by effective communication.
Discuss characteristics of ineffective communication.
Identify communication needs of common roles in health care.

3. Professional Communication: Purpose
The purpose of effective communication between individuals and teams is to ensure that professionals succeed in their roles and with their assigned tasks
The purpose of professional communication training is to ensure that individuals and teams succeed in their roles and their assigned tasks. In health care, that means that professional communication supports good patient care and positive outcomes by allowing nurses, physicians, administrators and allied health professionals to work together and communicate effectively.

4. Professional Communication: Goal
The goal of professional communication training is to provide professionals with an understanding of the concepts and the skills required to communicate in a professional manner
The goal of professional communication training is to provide individuals with an understanding of the concepts and skills required to communicate in a professional manner.
Professional communication skills are an important part of your training and will be critical to your success as a health IT professional.

5. Effective Communication
Accomplishes a number of goals
The intended message is delivered and understood
Results in instant verbal and non-verbal feedback
Is always professional in tone and language
Increases your credibility as a professional
Effective professional communication accomplishes several goals. First it ensures that your message is delivered to the recipient, and that it is understood.
Moreover, effective communication should result in both verbal and non-verbal feedback. As an example, if you’re explaining to a person how to use a certain software program, verbal feedback might include their saying that they understand how to use it. Non-verbal feedback might be when they nod their head as you’re explaining to show that they understand what you’re saying.
In addition, professional communication always involves a pleasant tone and appropriate language. Your credibility as a professional is built in part on your ability to communicate effectively.

6. Ineffective Communication
Characteristics
One-way communication
Emotionally-based, insensitive or intimidating
Damaging to your credibility as a professional and to the organization’s reputation
Conversely, ineffective communication can have a serious and long-lasting negative impact. Ineffective communication does not result in an understanding of your message by the recipient. You may give an explanation, but the person you’re talking to doesn’t understand what you’re saying. If they stay silent and don’t communicate their confusion, the communication isn’t two-way, and you don’t get any feedback. Overly emotional, insensitive, or intimidating communication is also ineffective and can be damaging to your professional credibility. It can also negatively impact the reputation of your organization in the community. For example, if your supervisor comes in to talk with you and uses an angry tone, you’re likely to be alarmed and may not hear or understand what is being said. On the other hand, if your supervisor uses an even tone and calm manner, you’ll be more able to hear what she’s saying and more open to her feedback.

7. Communication and Health Care Roles
Many different professional roles in the health care environment
Understanding these roles aids effective communication
Effective communication allows you to become part of the health care team
The health care environment includes many professional roles and teams that need to work together to help patients and their families. As an IT professional, you’re an essential part of the health care team and will often have to communicate directly with nurses, physicians and other health professionals. Having an understanding of other professional roles and their communication needs will help you gain the skills you need to be an effective communicator and become a valuable part of the health care team.

8. Health Care Roles: Administration and Support Staff
Day-to-day running of the organization
Support for health care professionals in their efforts to care for patients
No direct patient care
Regulatory compliance
Among the roles in health care are administrators and support staff. While these professionals aren’t involved in hands-on patient care, their work ensures that the health care organization is run efficiently, and that nurses and physicians have the resources they need to care for patients.
Administrators and support staff are also responsible for ensuring that the organization complies with local, state, federal, and other regulations that govern health care.
The communication needs of administrators and executives are very different from those of individuals in other health care roles. The executive needs concise, succinct, non-technical communication with only the relevant level of detail to make an informed decision. As a member of the HIT team, you may be communicating to executives as part of a monthly project review meeting or project status report. It’s important for you to understand the executive's role as related to the project and to communicate effectively in a professional manner.

9. Health Care Roles: Physicians
A physician’s role in the health care team is diagnosis and guiding the overall direction of patient care.
Physicians apply their knowledge of medicine to diagnose and treat patients with illness, disease and injury.
They work with other members of the health care team to care for patients.
Physicians are primarily responsible for leading the health care team and guiding patient care. With their specialized knowledge of medicine, physicians diagnose patients’ illnesses, determine treatments and engage other team members to resolve illness and injury in their patients. They also work with the patients on ways to prevent illness and disease. Physicians work with other health care professionals to care for patients.
When physicians are involved in projects in their organizations, they’re accustomed to being consulted about and included in all aspects of the project. They expect this same type of respect on health IT projects. Physician communication needs may include the technical details of a proposal so they can understand how the system works and increase their overall knowledge. It’s also not unusual for physicians to feel responsible for representing diverse clinical perspectives. So, they may adopt a challenging or seemingly adversarial stance to ensure that all viewpoints have been thoroughly considered.

10. Health Care Roles: Nurses
In hospitals, nurses are responsible for hands-on patient care at the bedside. They also play an important role in patient safety.
Nurses report patient status to physicians in order to help physicians guide patient care.
In a clinic or outpatient setting, nurses also work with physicians to ensure that patients stay healthy or recover their health when possible.
In the hospital setting, nurses provide hands-on patient care at the bedside. In addition, nurses are often the last safety check for orders like medications. Nurses are also responsible for assessing and managing the patient’s condition during the course of their shifts and reporting to physicians on patient status. Nurses also work in clinic and outpatient settings where they’re important members of the health care team.
Nurses rely on information being delivered in a concise and direct manner. They typically don’t have the desire or the time to read an entire dissertation on the reasoning for one IT technical approach versus another. They want to understand the impact on their workflow and the care of their patients. They also need sufficient advance notice of changes and any training that would be needed.

11. Health Care Roles: Allied Health Professionals
Examples include:
Occupational therapists
Respiratory therapists
Dietitians
Physical therapists
Allied health professionals provide a wide range of technical, diagnostic, therapeutic and patient care services. Examples include occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, dietitians, physical therapists and others. Most allied health professionals interact directly with patients, while others work behind the scenes. Allied health professionals are valuable members of the health care team and provide support to the health care providers and to the patient in the form of medication order verification, taking x-rays, providing physical therapy for rehabilitation, and the management and use of information technology.
Each of these allied health professionals has different communication needs. For example, a pharmacist relies on real-time allergy information to deliver safe patient medications. When a patient's allergy information is no longer available due to a problem with the system interface, this becomes an urgent patient safety issue that must be communicated quickly to the impacted users, particularly the pharmacist. However, the physical therapists could be satisfied with non-real time information, such as the appointment schedule being ed to the manager just before the beginning of the work day.

12. Health Care Roles: Patients
Vulnerable
Dependent on your work to support their care
May be impaired due to illness
Patients depend on effective communications among the members of their health care team. Understanding their concerns and challenges is an important building block in your communication skills when you interact with them. Remember that they’re often worried and possibly impaired in their ability to understand you.

13. Health Care Roles: Regulatory Agencies and Other External Entities
Examples of external entities that need information:
State licensing boards, which allow health care organizations to operate.
The Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies health care organizations to ensure safe, high-quality care.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other third-party payers, such as private insurance companies
There are numerous regulatory agencies at both the state and federal level that license and approve organizations for patient care, as well as other external entities that require information. These include state licensing boards and the Joint Commission, both of which oversee hospital operations. They typically require regular reporting from health care organizations. In addition, those who pay for services, such as CMS and insurance companies, also have information needs. Communication from you and your organization, such as reporting on patient care statistics, quality measures or billing information, must be professional, timely, accurate, and thorough. These communications are typically in the form of highly structured reports.

14. Health Care Roles: Interacting with the Public
You are the face of your organization to your friends, family and others.
People take their cue about the quality and effectiveness of your organization from how you talk about it.
Remember that your own particular experience may not reflect the organization as a whole.
The need for effective professional communication doesn’t end when you walk out the door at the end of the work day. The general public will judge what you say about your organization outside the workplace. Complaining about your workplace to neighbors and friends could negatively impact their confidence in the care they may be receiving there, perhaps for a serious condition. Remember that your own particular experience may not reflect the organization as a whole. Be aware of organizational policies that govern communication on social media sites and news agencies. Most organizations state that employment can be terminated when communication is posted that reflects poorly on the organization or patient care.

15. Communication Guidelines: Face to Face
Physical distance and stance
Diversity issues
Body language
Tone of voice and language
Humor
Appropriate and inappropriate sharing
You want to present a professional demeanor while interacting with others face to face. This includes elements such as how far you stand from someone, your body language, your vocal tone and choice of words. Making sure you don’t invade someone’s personal space is important to professional communication. Having positive body language—good posture, direct eye contact, and full concentration—is important as well. Use a pleasant tone, avoid slang and don’t use offensive language. Inappropriate humor can detract from professional demeanor, and so can inappropriate sharing of personal information.
Remember that the health care environment is a very diverse place with people of varied ages, nationalities, religions and cultural backgrounds. What may be a funny joke in one culture can be offensive in another. Also, what you may perceive as appropriate personal sharing, such as family history or personal problems, may seem inappropriate to someone else.
Be sensitive to how your communications might be perceived by others.

16. Communication Guidelines: Electronic
Language should be clear and concise.
Focus on the task or problem.
Avoid jokes or sharing personal information.
Always use a greeting using the person’s title (Dr., Mr., Ms., etc.)
With , always end with your business contact information.
Your demeanor when using should also be professional. Use clear and concise language. Stay focused on the purpose of the communication. Avoid making jokes or sharing personal information. Always begin with appropriate greetings such as Dr. Cole or Ms. Hillman. End each message with your name, title and contact information, to make it easier for people to reach you by phone if they need to.

17. Communication Guidelines: Phone
Keep your language clear, concise and focused on the task.
Maintain a professional tone of voice.
Avoid making jokes, using humor to make a point, or sharing personal information.
When leaving a message, provide your full contact information; speak slowly and clearly.
Your demeanor over the phone blends the important facets of face-to-face and communications. Always maintain a professional tone, and keep your language clear and concise. Avoid humor, jokes and sharing of personal information. When leaving a voice mail message, be brief and leave your contact information to enable the person to reach you easily. Speak slowly and clearly, and repeat your phone number.

18. Overview of Communication Relevant to Health IT Summary
Professional communication skills enable you to be an effective member of the health care team.
Ineffective communication prevents you from being seen as a competent professional.
Understanding other professional roles is important for effective communication.
This concludes the Overview of Communication Relevant to Health IT. In summary, communication skills are one of the building blocks of a successful professional career.
Professional communication supports effective teamwork. It also helps various professionals in a workplace to carry out their responsibilities successfully. In health care, that means that professional communication supports good patient care and positive outcomes by allowing nurses, physicians, administrators and allied health professionals to work together.
Having a clear understanding of the other professional roles in your organization and their communication needs will be important to your communication skills. Without these skills, your co-workers may not see you as a professional.

19. Overview of Communication Relevant to IT References — Lecture a
UT-Interprofessional Education. (n.d.) Healthcare roles. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from
Association of Schools of Allied Health Professionals. (2014). Allied health professionals. Retrieved from
Emergency Nurses Association. (n.d.) Regulatory and accreditation information. Retrieved from
No audio.
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 4.0

20. Professionalism/Customer Service in the Health Care Environment Overview of Communication Relevant to Health IT Lecture a
This material was developed by The University of Alabama at Birmingham, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under Award Number IU24OC This material was updated in 2016 by Bellevue College under Award Number 90WT0002.
No audio.
Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 4.0