Unified Communications for Caregiver Collaboration
Today, high-quality healthcare can be delivered only by multidisciplinary teams consisting of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, social workers, health payers, and others-and often requires coordination with and among caregivers who work in the community and in patients' homes. But such "teamwork" can lead to fragmented communication, information, and work processes that put quality at risk; for example, duplication of patient records, unnecessary tests, or prolonged hospital stays. Effective and timely communication and collaboration among members of a care team is of vital importance to the quality of patient care. Care team members need an integrated communication and information environment in which they can quickly, easily, and securely access up-to-date patient information -- and each other -- from a variety of locations using tools that are familiar, economical, and easy to use.
Caregiver collaboration solutions that include Microsoft unified communications technologies bring the many ways healthcare professionals communicate into one familiar user interface that lets them initiate and manage e-mail, messaging, phone calls, Web conferencing, calendar items, and audio or video conferences with a click of the mouse or a simple voice command. This user interface also shows whether the people they want to reach are available and the best ways to reach them, alleviating many of the communication bottlenecks healthcare professionals so often experience. And that means they can spend less time playing phone tag and more time caring for patients.
 | Our new voice response contact system, built with Office Communications Server 2007, integrates easily with our patient management and scheduling procedures. With it, we've lowered our cost per contact and more than doubled the number of low-income patients scheduling first-time preventive care visits. |  | | Jorge Weingarten, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Care1st Health Plan | |
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Designed to meet the workflow needs of mobile and geographically distributed care teams, Microsoft unified communications technologies provide caregivers with more access to patient information and each other on a variety of systems and devices, such as PCs, mobile phones, and Tablet PCs. These solutions allow caregivers to connect with the right person or information at the right time, improving patient outcomes while managing costs and privacy across the entire continuum of care.
On This Page
Care team collaboration
| • | Caregivers can collaborate more effectively by being able to find and communicate with each other across geographical and infrastructural boundaries-when, where, and how it's most convenient. Color-coded dots called Presence icons indicate availability and make mobile team members available to each other on a "click-to-communicate" basis.
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| • | Care teams can share test results, X-rays, and patient images in real time with Web and video conferencing. Web, audio, and video conferencing with Microsoft Office Live Meeting make it possible for care team members in different locations to communicate both verbally and visually.
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| • | Communicating is faster and easier with intuitive solutions that rely on a single, easy-to-use interface of Microsoft Office Communicator and are integrated with Microsoft Outlook and other familiar Microsoft Office applications.
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Results:
| • | Improved quality of care
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| • | Improved caregiver and patient satisfaction
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| • | Improved patient safety
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| • | More efficient and effective communications, including reduced travel time and costs for outreach activities and consultations
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Medical training and education
| • | Caregivers find colleagues quickly by department or role and contact them using the Presence information integrated into clinical and administrative portals.
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| • | Faster communication and issue resolution are possible when caregivers can click-to-communicate from within the clinical portals or administrative dashboards they're already using.
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| • | Communications are captured and documented for regulatory compliance and auditing purposes when they are initiated using the Presence and click-to-communicate functions of Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 embedded into health and administrative portals.
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| • | Users have access to inboxes, calendars, and other mail data directly from the health portal when Portal Web Parts are integrated with Exchange Outlook Web Access.
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Results:
| • | Ability for caregivers to connect with each other at the right time, via the right method, with information that is readily avail
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| • | Streamlined communication and increased caregiver efficiency
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| • | Interoperability with different portal platforms
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| • | Improved regulatory and privacy compliance
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Outpatient scheduling and follow-up
| • | Healthcare teams can schedule appointments, plan follow-ups, and set up alerts quickly and easily using Exchange Server and the Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) capabilities of Office Communications Server.
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| • | Patients can follow post-treatment care regimes, communicate with care teams, and schedule and keep appointments using an online portal. Office SharePoint Server 2007 delivers an automated system that is cost-effective and easy to administer.
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Results:
| • | Improved post-treatment care and reduced acute-care costs
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| • | Long-term patient satisfaction and retention
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| • | Increased revenue channels and referrals to other patients
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Caregiver-to-patient communication
| • | Remote delivery of patient education, post-treatment counseling, and virtual group sessions. Using Office Live Meeting, patients and caregivers can communicate more efficiently before, after, and between office visits.
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| • | Improved decisions about care management based on real-time communication between providers, care teams, and patients. Office Communications Server and Office Live Meeting can also be used to help patients prepare for surgery or review care plans.
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| • | Security-enhanced data delivery and compliance with HIPAA or other regulations. Exchange Server 2007 uses encryption to help secure and track information exchanged between doctors, family members, the care team, and government agencies according to regulations.
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Results:
| • | Improved care management decisions
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| • | Improved regulatory compliance and risk management
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| • | Improved patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes at lower cost
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Solution technologies
Caregiver Collaboration Solutions that include unified communications are built on these proven Microsoft technologies:
Microsoft unified communications technologies are also capable of leveraging an organization's existing communications investments. These include private branch exchange (PBX) and private networks, as well as public-switched telephone systems, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), corporate and public instant messaging systems, and personal computers. And, because the solution is based on open standards, connectivity to and interoperability with all of these communications platforms are readily available.
