Reengineering communication at the University of Mississippi Medical Center: the case for the campus dialogue.

One of the key concepts at the heart of the continuous improvement of processes and outcomes in health care is improved organizational communication. Complex organizations such as academic health centers often find that communication among internal customers is informal and ineffective. The article describes a successful effort for improving communication in an academic health center that was the product of reengineering a previous communication process. Implications of reengineering and lessons learned from implementation are presented. Reengineering is a beneficial concept for guiding some improvements in health care organizations.