Clinical Communication Integrations for Better Patient Care

Miscommunication can wreak havoc in healthcare settings. If important information isn’t readily available to the care team to aid them in making timely decisions about patient care—maybe a message gets missed or an alert is delivered to the wrong person—it’s only a matter of time before something bad happens. 

In theory, the digitization of communication should’ve addressed this problem.

Almost every communication workflow takes place on a phone or computer, so it should all be fast, easy, and reliable—right? Not always. That’s because, despite the growing prevalence of digital tools, many of them are still siloed point solutions that can only accomplish a very narrow set of tasks.

Just a few examples to illustrate how clinicians using different systems can cause problems: 

• A provider sends a message through the EHR, but the nurse is using a secure texting app, so messages get delayed responses or are missed entirely.
• A lab tech pages a physician about a critical result using one system, but the physician’s availability is tracked in a separate system that doesn’t sync in real time, meaning the alert goes unanswered for hours since it was delivered when the physician wasn’t scheduled.
• The nurse assistant checks a standalone scheduling system to request a consult, but it’s not integrated with the hospital’s on-call system, so they don’t realize the provider listed isn’t actually on call. The consult request lands in the inbox of an off-work physician. 

These workflows are like playing a high-stakes game of telephone—messages get lost, mixed up, or sent to the wrong person. They underscore the frustration and potential dangers of the communication silos that are often created in healthcare. 

So what’s the alternative to communication silos? Integration!

In fact, the 2024 Clinical Communications Interoperability Report published by KLAS Research found that organizations with more integrated clinical communication systems achieved more outcomes, including improved care coordination, better care transitions, and faster response times for emergencies.  

Key Results 

• Fragmented communication solutions create workflow bottlenecks and impact patient care quality. Many healthcare organizations struggle with siloed communication tools, leading to delays, inefficiencies, and gaps in care coordination.
• Seamless integrations between key clinical systems break down communication barriers. By connecting disparate solutions, organizations can improve care team collaboration and streamline essential workflows.
• Integrating multiple solutions presents logistical and technical challenges. Healthcare organizations must navigate interoperability hurdles, including aligning numerous technologies and ensuring smooth data exchange.

Highest Value Integrations for Clinical Communication Solutions 

There are a number of healthcare integrations that empower care teams to deliver faster care, but KLAS found a few essential integrations that do the most to alleviate workflow inefficiencies.  

EHR Deep Dive  

Paul Warburton, a Senior Market Research Analyst with KLAS Research, frequently hears clinician teams refer to the EHR as the heart of the IT system because it’s the central point where most patient care is documented. Because of this, any care-based solutions that the care team touches should be able to integrate with the EHR. 

Embedded Messaging

“When you think about a win for workflows, keeping people inside the solution is a tremendous driver in satisfaction,” Paul said.

One integration that excels in this area is embedded messaging, which transforms care team collaboration by allowing providers to use the clinical communication system directly in the EHR interface—no switching between apps, no missed messages. By keeping conversations in the same place where patient data lives, clinicians can quickly share updates, clarify orders, and coordinate care without unnecessary distractions. The result? Faster workflows, fewer communication gaps, and more seamless patient care.

Paul acknowledged that bidirectional communication between the EHR and other systems has the most potential to improve care delivery. Ideally, this would lead to further integrations where care teams would no longer have to leave the EHR to request a consult or check lab results.

Critical Results

Integrating critical lab results notifications into your clinical communication workflows ensures results get to the right clinician at the right time. When you lean on intelligent routing for healthcare messaging, critical results can be delivered instantly and escalated to the next clinician if they go unanswered for a certain period of time.

Order Notifications

Just like critical lab results, order notifications can be integrated to ensure timely care delivery. When a consult request or STAT order is placed, automated routing instantly directs the notification to the right care team member—whether it’s a specialist, nurse, or on-call provider. This eliminates manual follow-ups, reduces delays, and ensures that urgent requests are addressed as quickly as possible, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Patient Transitions 

Integrating patient transition notifications within the EHR allows the care team to have access to automated alerts that notify clinicians of key patient movements like admissions, discharges, and transfers. 

For patient transfers, integrating the healthcare operator console with key clinical systems—such as scheduling—ensures that real-time notifications reach the correct providers. Accurate scheduling data helps direct transfer communications to the right on-call clinicians, reducing delays and ensuring a smoother handoff for both incoming and outgoing patients.

Alarm Management and Middleware 

Alarm management and middleware was one of the earliest integrations discussed in the modern clinical communication space because it allows alerts and alarms to be filtered to the right people. This gets notifications to the care team faster and reduces alarm fatigue by ensuring information reaches only those who really need it. 

A great example is nurse call integration. If a patient requests assistance—like help getting to the bathroom—the system can route the request to a nurse aide or tech instead of a nurse who may be occupied with another patient. This ensures that requests are handled efficiently by the most available team member, reducing response times and improving patient satisfaction. It also frees roles like nurses up to engage in more top-of-license practice.

For this to work effectively, the health system must also have technology with intelligent workflow routing capabilities that can sort, prioritize, and direct requests in real time. 

VoIP 

A VoIP integration enables care teams to connect more quickly, especially when they can make secure, role-based calls directly from their healthcare communication platform. 

According to Paul, a VoIP integration has many applications, but it delivers the greatest value when organizations identify the specific workflows they want to enhance with it. As a bonus, integrating VoIP with clinical communication can bring voice calls into the same inbox where all other alerts, messages, and other patient information is held. That’s real convenience! 

Scheduling 

To provide better care, the number one barrier to break down is slow communication between the nurse and physician. This can be done by integrating healthcare scheduling software into the clinical communication ecosystem and connecting it with other key solutions. 

Since the EHR is central to patient care delivery, seamless communication between providers is essential for timely care. Integrating scheduling with the EHR allows scheduling data to auto-populate, ensuring nurses always know exactly which clinician to contact and when.

This is beneficial in a number of ways: 

• Reduces frustration by allowing providers to see who’s available in real time
• Prevents providers from being paged or messaged when they’re not working
• Enhances the experience by eliminating the need to track down the correct care team member’s contact information

Long story short when it comes to integration? It enhances care coordination, efficiency, and provider satisfaction. When clinical communication tools are effectively integrated, organizations are likely to see improved patient outcomes, reduced administrative burden, and a better user experience for clinicians.