Communication Paper
Nalani Calantoc
HCS/490
Ann Fairchild
September 16, 2013

Introduction Communication is extremely important in the medical field. The medical field is a very busy and fast pace working environment, therefore, everyone including the provider, its employees, as well as their patients needs to come to a good understanding of one another by communicating directly, effective, and efficiently. Communication can be the key to a very successful business. One mode of communication in health care is electronic medical records. Although you think of an electronic medical record as a type of record that is electronic it actually hold great potential for communication. This is a type of communication that health care employees use to communicate from one person to another, one department to another, from the provider to the patient.

Benefits of Communication When proceeded properly, the benefits of communicating through an electronic medical record can be successful but only if done effective and efficiently. When you think about an electronic medical record, communication doesn’t come to mind. One would tend to wonder how communication would come in play with an electronic medical record but to be honest and electronic medical record plays a big role with communication. An electronic medical record can communicate with many different parties in a medical facility, even all at once. The benefit of this type of communication is that unlike paper files where everything needs to be written then passed over to the next department for further viewing, screening, or diagnostics, an electronic medical record can automatically log the information onto a computer system and this will make it viewable to every department that has the permission to view a patients file. This means fast service for the patient. The patient wouldn’t need to be constantly giving information as to what is wrong with them. Every medical staff that views the patient records can see exactly what is wrong with the patient, what the patient needs, what still needs to be done, and so on.
Patient Confidentiality In the medical field a patient’s confidentiality is their number one goal. Patient files need to keep safe without having any unauthorized individuals viewing a patient’s file. Communication can be like two individuals having a conversation in person, if one person was to talk to the other person that would be the meaning of communications. Now if one of those individuals had told the other a secret, it is the listener’s responsibility to keep that secret, this is where confidentiality would come into place. The listener has the choice to repeat what he/she heard and tell it to someone else or he/she can keep it a secret and show some respect for the other individual. Confidentiality is more common in life situation than we think, especially when dealing with communication confidentiality.

How does this communication differ? This type of confidentiality is different than others because the communication method is different than other types of communication methods. Other types of communication methods include, email, phone calls, letters in the mail and face to face communications. Electronic medical record communication differs because it is not a type of communication where it directly communicates with someone. It is electronically and doesn’t present a message. It only displays patient’s information for other health departments to view.
Conclusion
Electronic medical records may not be a directed type of communication and communicates to other individuals and departments in a medical facility differently than other types of communication but they system communicate very effectively and efficiently. Today the world is based on all types of electronic devices and systems. Electronic systems seem to be the evolution of the new century. These devices also help to provide less errors’ when communicating. Errors can be a big problem in the medical field because patients’ records contain every piece of medical history and one error could cause the patient harm. Electronic medical records help health care providers communicate faster to other medical facilities and departments as well as the patient. So this means fast, effective, and efficient service for the patient.

Reference: Weiner, Saul J., et al., “Processes for Effective Communication in Primary Care,” Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol. 142, No. 8 (April 19, 2005). |

Epstein, Ronald M., “Communication Between Primary Care Physicians and Consultants,” Archives of Family Medicine, Vol. 4, No. 5 (May 1995). O’Malley, Ann S., et al., “Are Electronic Medical Records Helpful for Care Coordination? Experiences of Physician Practices,” Journal of General Internal Medicine, Vol. 25, No. 3 (March 2010). | |