Aspect Blogs

Insight to Help Build the Customer-Centric Enterprise

Recently, the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) released principles to support collaborative relationships among clinical nurses and their managers.

At a glance, these guidelines direct nurses to:

1. Engage in active listening to fully understand and contemplate what is being relayed.
2. Know the intent of a message, and what is the purpose and expectations of that message.
3. Foster an open, safe environment.
4. Whether giving or receiving information, be sure it is accurate.
5. Have people speak to the person they need to speak to, so the right person gets the right information.

Three of the five principles focus on the exchange of information―a critical element of better collaboration. Since nurses are constantly on the move during their shifts, they must be able to share and access information wherever they are. The right tools can make all the difference.

Aspect has developed a range of solutions for the healthcare industry to make it easier for healthcare staff to ensure that they always have the most up-to-date, accurate information. Using Microsoft technologies, Aspect has developed applications such as team collaboration sites and virtual unit bulletin boards to improve communication and real-time data sharing. A nurse can enter information once about a patient on a PC or tablet and it’s instantly available to nurse managers as well as administrators

These applications can deliver far-reaching benefits for other functions in hospitals. Once administrators are better able to aggregate data from disparate systems, they can generate reports in accessible formats to support better decision making. With these capabilities, hospital administrations can access data to track performance metrics and determine incentive payments. In addition, since hospitals must comply with new standardized quality measures to get reimbursements, greater access to information can significantly streamline this process.

But it all starts with the information that’s entered into systems by nurses and other frontline providers. What are you doing to support greater collaboration at your healthcare facility?