Role-based Communication Patterns Within an Emergency Department Setting

Abstract

This paper reports results from an observational study of clinician communication patterns in an emergency department setting. The study took place in an urban Emergency department in New South Wales between July and September 2001. The main outcomes from this part of the study included measures of: clinician time involved in communication; number of communication events; choice of communication channel; overall interruption rate; and interruption rates related to clinical role. Introduction & Background: Communication between health care providers accounts for between 60 and 90 % of all information transactions within the healthcare system (Covell, Uman & Manning 1985; Coiera & Tombs, 1998). Further, communication failures within the health system have been reported to be a large contributor to adverse clinical events and outcomes (Donchin et al, 1995; Wilson et al,