Physical Therapists Use Whiteboard to Help Rehab Communication
- Collaborating on “hand-off” messages between Physical Therapy and nursing staff
- Writing specific messages about daily therapy sessions on a board in the patient’s room
- Standardizing information placed on the boards
What can your team do to encourage better communication between team members?
Physical Medicine is a department that literally touches all units of a hospital. But at Fontana Medical Center, there was a disconnect between the nursing staff and the physical therapists who would come in to work with patients. As a result, nurses didn’t always know just how ambulatory their patients were becoming. The solution? The team decided that a prominent marker board in the patient’s room would be the best way for nurses and physical therapists to communicate.
Poor communication inspires the Physical Medicine team at the Fontana Medical Center to improve “hand-off” messages between nurses and physical therapists about patients' mobility.
Whiteboards help members of the care team communicate with one another.
percent of staff who completed a “warm hand-off” of patient physical therapy information, up from 50%