Surprising Results from the Use of Whiteboards in Hospitals

The Journal of Hospital Medicine’s, “Patient Whiteboards as a Communication Tool in the Hospital Setting: A Survey of Practices and Recommendations” is a very interesting study for anyone working or interested in the medical field. Communication is important in every field, but especially crucial in the medical field and that’s why I thought it was a significant study to share.

The survey was conducted medical staff from the University of California hospital in San Francisco to identify the impact of whiteboards as a communication tool.

Summarized results included:

• Nurses were more likely to use the whiteboards for “goal of the day” or “anticipated discharge date” information
• Hospital operations believed that nurses and physicians should team up to create “goals of the day,” however, nurses should be responsible for the information on the whiteboard
• Family contact information was the most important information to put on a whiteboard
• All of the respondents believed that the use of whiteboards could improve teamwork, communication and patient care 

Recommendations from survey conductors:

• Whiteboards should be put near a patient’s bedside
• Create whiteboard templates
• Nurses should write on and update whiteboards as needed

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To learn more about the survey and results, visit http://bit.ly/1DGc2G1.To view the variety of hospital whiteboards available through Magnatag Visible Systems, visit http://bit.ly/1Mi2aTW.