Components of a Strategic Communication Plan

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Plan of action:

In response to your request to develop a plan that encompasses communication strategies across a range of critical issues , we will examine Relations with the public, employee relations, patient satisfaction, relations across departments, and other organizational issues that may have relevance to the hospital’s viability including, the merger and the hospital's identity.

We have elected to present the plan in two parts; the first being a short term plan that can address the immediate situation, and a longer term plan to identify barriers and other areas to address.

Short term:

There are some things you might be able to do right away to create an environment conducive to good communication outcomes by providing care provider communications training. Wright, Kevin B.; Sparks, Lisa; O'Hair, H state “ In many ways, providers learn about many aspects of health in ways that are similar to patients” (1)

Formal training can be in the form of a Lunch and Learn in which information about the impact of good health communications can be presented to sensitize and inspire the care giver to improve.

Information like the “Top Ten Issues Relating to Likelihood of Patients Recommending Emergency Room Department” presented by Dr. Eisenberg in a study that involved 569 ER Departments and 1,011,671 Patients who identified the top ten issues of patient’s non clinical needs are presented in order as follows:

- Doctor takes your problem seriously

- Staff concern to inform your family/friends

- Doctor’s concern for your comfort

- How well you are kept informed about delays

- Doctor explains test and treatments

- Amount of attention paid to you by nurses

- Degree to which staff care about you as a person

- Courtesy shown toward family and friends

- Nurse’s concern to inform you about treatment

- Nurses take your problem seriously

Clearly in the matter originally reported, the nurse’s understanding of the above would have prevented the situation of the five patients that complained of poor interpersonal manner of one of nurses who was described as brusque and insensitive by asking a patients wife to leave at the end of visiting hours in a rude manner, yelling at the patient for everything, and never explains anything stating “quickly get out of bed and into the wheelchair or you’ll be late for your test.”

LONG TERM PLAN

To understand the goal of good patient communications, the Joint Commission defines Effective communication as “The successful joint establishment of meaning wherein patients and health care providers exchange information, enabling patients to participate actively in their care from admission through discharge, and ensuring that the responsibilities of both patients and providers are understood. To be truly effective, communication requires a two-way process (expressive and receptive) in which messages are negotiated until the information is correctly understood by both parties. Successful communication takes place only when providers understand and integrate the information gleaned from patients, and when patients comprehend accurate, timely, complete, and unambiguous messages from providers in a way that enables them to participate responsibly in their care.” (2)

Once again, in the study presented by Dr. Eisenberg, he states rightly “Miscommunication can lead to Misunderstanding which can lead to Misjudgment” (3) and presents the following ideas that can be used in a plan to address the communication strategies across a range of critical issues:

• Relations with the public- Teach the Patient to be a responsible patient by giving them an orientation verbally and by hand out materials, as well as postings that they need to: be on time, be prepared, have a list of questions and concerns, get to the point – be clear and concise, acknowledge reservations or embarrassment, avoid tendency to minimize the problem, take notes and/or bring someone along, repeat instructions, ask questions (3)

• Employee relations- It is critical to the success of any communication plan that the organization get the buy-in of its employees, therefore they need to establish the authority. The Joint commission has a Roadmap for Hospitals document that can assist hospitals in getting employees to understand that much of what is being asked of them is not just good practice, but is now required by regulation and in some cases Law. The following is an excerpt from Roadmap for Hospitals (2) to train staff: “Hospitals may choose to distribute reading assignments from the Roadmap for Hospitals to key staff. For example, it may be

important to have all quality, patient safety, and risk management staff read the content of the monograph so that they can incorporate relevant practices into their existing processes. Clinical staff may benefit from reading the core chapters to gain an understanding of how various patient focused issues can be addressed throughout the continuum of care. This monograph could also be used as part of a comprehensive staff and medical staff orientation program”. (2)

“To Help Inform Policy--Some hospitals may want to use the Roadmap for Hospitals to evaluate policy and procedures. While the intent is not to focus on policy, well-crafted policy can support care practice that is effective and responsive to patient and clinician needs. Some of the areas that may be informed by the Roadmap for Hospitals include the patient satisfaction policy, visitation policy, interpreter service/language access policy, patient rights policy, complaint and grievance procedures, and so forth. (2)

The use of checklists is also recommended as follows: See Appendix A

• Patient satisfaction,

Adopt the patient-centered communication standards the needs to train care givers that

without proper care giver communications, Patients don’t feel trust, will not understand,

don’t comply with directives, Patients get sicker, Patients become frustrated, Patients

don’t follow up with subsequent visits,