Improving Clinical Communication and Patient Safety: Clinician-Recommended Solutions

Teamwork and good communication are essential to providing high-quality care. We examined clinician perspectives on clinician-to-clinician communication in the context of pediatric patient safety using 90-minute focus groups comprising representatives from varied clinician groups (physicians, nurses, pharmacists) in the five Chicago area hospitals of the Pediatric Patient Safety Consortium. Using a standardized protocol, we asked participants to address effective and problematic communication related to patient safety risk and any recommended solutions to address these risks. Verbatim transcripts of the focus groups were analyzed to identify major themes. In this article, we focus specifically on the potential patient safety solutions clinicians recommended. Sixty-five clinician focus groups were conducted. The key solution-oriented themes included: (1) technology, health information technology (HIT), and electronic medical record (EMR) elements and organization; (2) coordination of care and communication around care plans; (3) communication in transitions; (4) knowledge and experience gaps; (5) team-oriented solutions; (6) orders and consultations; (7) organizational responsibility and communication about errors. Improving the understanding of clinician-recommended solutions to address risk related to clinician communication will direct targets for communication-related patient safety improvement.