Change In Length of Stay and Readmissions among Hospitalized Medical Patients after Inpatient Medicine Service Adoption of Mobile Secure Text Messaging

Patel, Mitesh S.; Patel, Neha; Small, Dylan S.; Rosin, Roy; Rohrbach, Jeffrey; Stromberg, Nathaniel; Hanson, C. William; Asch, David A.

doi:10.1007/s11606-016-3673-7

Cited by 24 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…[19][20][21] Such applications encrypt text messages on the device and through transport, thereby meeting HIPAA requirements. 22 They also feature other functionalities designed to improve hospital-based team communication. 4 After implementation of such secure messaging applications, several studies have shown a decreased inpatient length of stay 22 and improvements in care efficiency and provider satisfaction.…”

Section: Background and Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Secure Messaging Applications for a Health Care System: A Case Study

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective The use of text messaging in clinical care has become ubiquitous. Due to security and privacy concerns, many hospital systems are evaluating secure text messaging applications. This paper highlights our evaluation process, and offers an overview of secure messaging functionalities, as well as a framework for how to evaluate such applications. Methods Application functionalities were gathered through literature review, Web sites, speaking with representatives, demonstrations, and use cases. Based on similar levels of functionalities, vendors were grouped into three tiers. Essential and secondary functionalities for our health system were defined to help narrow our vendor choices. Results We stratified 19 secure messaging vendors into three tiers: basic secure communication, secure communication within an existing clinical application, and dedicated communication and collaboration systems. Our essential requirements revolved around functionalities to enhance security and communication, while advanced functionalities were mostly considered secondary. We then narrowed our list of 19 vendors to four, then created clinical use cases to rank the final vendors. Discussion When evaluating a secure messaging application, numerous factors must be considered in parallel. These include: what clinical processes to improve, archiving text messages, mobile device management, bring your own device policy, and Wi-Fi architecture. Conclusion Secure messaging applications provide a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant communication platform, and also include functionality to improve clinical collaboration and workflow. We hope that our evaluation framework can be used by other health systems to find a secure messaging application that meets their needs.

show abstract

Section: Background and Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Secure Messaging Applications for a Health Care System: A Case Study

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Secure text messaging has been piloted as a method of preventing miscommunication through one-way pagers, reducing communication failures by up to 59% 20. Adoption of text messaging by inpatient medicine has even been show to significantly reduce length of stay for inpatients 21. Overall, miscommunication between hospital teams can be ameliorated by establishing a direct line of communication with daily reports, teaching conferences and joint QI efforts 22…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waiting it out: consultation delays prolong in-patient length of stay

Rahman

Shi

Meza

et al. 2019

Postgraduate Medical Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundDecreasing delays for hospitalised patients results in improved hospital efficiency, increased quality of care and decreased healthcare expenditures. Delays in subspecialty consultations and procedures can cause increased length of stay due to reasons outside of necessary medical care.ObjectiveTo quantify, describe and record reasons for delays in consultations and procedures for patients on the general medicine wards.MethodologyWe conducted weekly audits of all admitted patients on five Internal Medicine teams over 8 weeks. A survey was reviewed with attending physicians and residents on five internal medicine teams to identify patients with a delay due to consultation or procedure, quantify length of delay and record reason for delay.ResultsDuring the study period, 316 patients were reviewed and 48 were identified as experiencing a total of 53 delays due to consultations or procedures. The average delay was 1.8 days for a combined total of 83 days. Top reasons for delays included scheduling, late response to page and a busy service. The frequency in length of consult delays vary among different specialties. The highest frequency of delays was clustered in procedure-heavy specialties.ConclusionThis report highlights the importance of reviewing system barriers that lead to delayed service in hospitals. Addressing these delays could lead to reductions in length of stay for inpatients.

show abstract

“…This concept can lead to potential positive clinical outcomes like increased medication adherence for patients . Patient clinical outcomes like decreased hospital length of stay could even improve with a more direct patient to provider contact through text messaging . There might also be a reduction in hospital readmissions from increased provider communication with the patient .…”

Section: Concept Analyses Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…26 Patient clinical outcomes like decreased hospital length of stay could even improve with a more direct patient to provider contact through text messaging. 27 There might also be a reduction in hospital readmissions from increased provider communication with the patient. 28 However, there can be problems for both parties-including the patient and provider-that results.…”

Section: Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gateless communication: A concept analysis

Godzik

2019

Nurs Forum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The movement toward the use of electronic technologies in everyday life has also impacted healthcare. Patient portals allow patients to send messages to their healthcare team from the comfort of their own homes and even on mobile devices. With responses typically sent within 24 business hours, some patients are looking for more timely feedback to their health questions. This is true in behavioral health, where real‐time communication between psychologist‐patient is valued. It is not uncommon for psychiatric providers including psychiatrists and nurse practitioners to provide personal cell phone numbers or secure‐texting services to their patients. The real‐time texting that occurs between patients and providers is emerging as a new way in which information is shared. A literature review in PubMed and CINAHL revealed a plethora of research conducted on information exchanged via the patient portal; however, there appears to be a gap in the information known about direct patient‐provider communication that utilizes other types of technology. This concept analysis looks at this type of communication and proposes that a new concept be developed to perform future research studies. “Gateless communication” will be explored using a previous paper eight‐step method for conceptualizing this new concept.

show abstract

Change In Length of Stay and Readmissions among Hospitalized Medical Patients after Inpatient Medicine Service Adoption of Mobile Secure Text Messaging

Cited by 24 publications

References 27 publications

Evaluation of Secure Messaging Applications for a Health Care System: A Case Study

Evaluation of Secure Messaging Applications for a Health Care System: A Case Study

Waiting it out: consultation delays prolong in-patient length of stay

Gateless communication: A concept analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About