$12 billion per year, that's how much revenue is reportedly lost in the Healthcare industry due to poor communication, according to Dr. James Woodson, MD, founder and CEO of Pulsara.
The reasons behind some of the communication struggles can be attributed to these correctable factors:
- Use of out-dated techology by clinics and hospitals
- Department-specific communication that doesn't translate to patient or other medical professionals
- Lack of consistent communication between care facilities
Microsoft Teams is Being Updated with Healthcare Professionals in Mind
Microsoft first demonstrated their commitment to the modernization of the Healthcare industry, by forming a specialized Healthcare Team in June of last year.
And now, they are continuing that initiative by adding updates to Microsoft Teams that will bring a whole medical team together to securely create optimal care plans for their patients.
Healthcare professionals can create a channel in Microsoft Teams for a patient's care plan, and then add that patient’s documents securely to the channel’s Files tab, where other members of the patient's care team can access them from that channel’s OneDrive.
Having patient records in an easy to update, real-time environment should improve both the accuracy of the record-keeping and the response time of reporting findings to the patient.
Microsoft Teams can also be used to hold coordinated meetings with all Healthcare providers and stakeholders. Making patient medical decisions quicker and more efficient.
Additionally, because Teams is in the cloud, Healthcare professionals can work together, no matter where they are.
Over the last few years, we have been learning alonside industry experts and making steady progress in helping health organizations navigate complex technology transformations. We have been so pleased by the enthusiastic response of the providers, payors, software developers, device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies we’ve been working with. - Peter Lee - Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Healthcare
Microsoft Built Teams to Be Compliant
The ability to integrate FHIR-enabled electronic health records (EHR) data with Teams is a gamechanger for the Healthcare industry.
The ability to view EHR data in Teams is enabled through partnerships between Microsoft and leading interoperability providers, including Infor Cloverleaf, Dapasoft, Datica, Kno2, and Redox.
Other Teams Capabilities that Aid Busy Healthcare Professionals
A new priority notifications feature in Teams alerts a recipient of an urgent message every two minutes for up to 20 minutes on their mobile and desktop devices until a response is received. This feature could help doctors and specialists know immediatley when their opinion is needed. Or if there's a patient emergency, they'll not only be notified, but have all the patient's files accesible on the run.
Message delegation is another feature Microsoft rolled out to aid clinical staff. Doctors and nurses can delegate their messages to go to another colleague when they are going to be unreachable in surgery or on vacation.
The Response to Microsoft Teams is Growing
420,000 organizations, including 89 of the Fortune 100, are already using Microsoft Teams to better communicate in the cloud.
With these healthcare-specific updates to Teams by Microsoft, it appears more hospitals, doctor's offices, and clinics will be using Teams to work better this year.
If Microsoft Teams can improve clinical outcomes by providing the secure, compliant communication platform industry-wide in the healthcare arena - it will be patients who stand to benefit the most.
Microsoft Teams works for organizations of any size
Even if these advanced features wouldn't be used by your healthcare facility. Teams is still an unbelievable cloud-based meeting and communications platform that keeps users connected and collaborating in a secure easy-to-access environment.
If your org needs training on Microsoft Teams, contact us today. Our ready, set, go Teams training rolled out this year and registrations are filling up.
