For every patient who is hospitalized, a team of clinicians seeks to improve his health in order to help discharge him or to transfer him to another facility. During a hospital stay, physicians and nurses are the two main providers who interact with each patient. Depending on the illness, pharmacists, occupational and physical therapists, social workers and a number of additional healthcare providers can be involved with the care of a patient. Healthcare has become a team endeavor, placing a high priority on proper and effective communication among those providers.
The transformation from individual to team-based collaborative practice has taken on such a significant role that in 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a framework for how interprofessional education should move forward. The year before, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM), American Association of College of Pharmacy (AACP), American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) came together to create the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) with a goal to improve communication for care. So what are some of the barriers to effective communication across these teams, and how can advances in technology make a difference?