Tips for myBeepr Group Chats
In 2020, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare conducted a study on communicating for safety. The study indicated that the key factors for providing coordinated, safe and comprehensive care are effective communication, collaboration and teamwork.
As a clinical collaboration tool, myBeepr has a group chat functionality which enhances communication, collaboration and teamwork in healthcare organisations. Whilst instant messaging is not a new phenomenon, it has been adopted as the conventional method of choice by healthcare professionals for acute and subacute care.
Group chats can be created for each care team or when multidisciplinary care is required when a patient has numerous complexities and competing priorities. Hence, group chats allow clinicians to effectively share clinical information in real-time for continuous and coordinated care for the purposes of diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, group chats have become imperative for clinicians to stay connected with peers and to keep abreast of alterations in a patient’s condition whilst working from home, working remotely or working for several healthcare organisations.
Group chats also modernise healthcare delivery by supporting healthcare teams in agility and improving productivity and reduces communication breakdown, which often occurs with traditional methods.
Why do other methods of communication fail in healthcare?
Traditional methods don't necessarily work well in healthcare and here are the reasons why:
Emails
Emails can be sent to multiple recipients (or distribution groups) however there is no visibility on who has read the email or when
Many doctors work 'on-the-go' and don't necessarily have access to their work emails, especially when working remotely or when working at multiple hospitals or sites
Emails are not secure
SMS
An SMS can be sent to multiple recipients but replies are often received as single messages from each person and recipients may not necessarily see other people's responses
Sending clinical information via SMS is not secure
Group chats created in WhatsApp are only available when you know an individual's contact number. This means that WhatsApp group chats may not include all relevant stakeholders and group chats cannot be facilitated with other departments.
WhatsApp group chats can only be managed by 'Admins' which makes it difficult when adding or removing participants
WhatsApp is an overseas-based organisation, so clinical conversations held in WhatsApp do not meet Australian Privacy Guidelines and the data may not be secure.
Why is myBeepr the gold-standard communication platform for clinical group chats?
myBeepr meets Australian Privacy Guidelines and data is stored on Australian servers, based in Sydney, Australia
myBeepr has secure end-to-end encryption, which means that messages, images or documents shared with recipients are encrypted on the sender's end, in transit, and on the receiver's end
Group chats in mybeepr can be 'managed' by all participants. Therefore, any existing participant of a group chat can add or remove other participants. This is particularly useful when there are Interns/JMOs, Residents/HMOs and Registrars rotating in and out of different departments
Users can easily create group chats with multidisciplinary care teams to promote better care and improve patient outcomes
Group chats can be created for clinical, social or administrative purposes and there are no limits to the number of group chats created\
Examples of Group Chats
Patient-related chats
Complex cases
Multidisciplinary teams group chats
Focus group sessions
Clinical trial or research groups
COVID-related communications
After-Hours / On Call rosters
Management-level chats
Topic-related discussions
Study groups (for medical students or doctors undertaking further studies)
Tips for Creating Group Chats
Create group chats which are essential for your team or department
Create other group chats to easily communicate with multidisciplinary teams
Invite all participants and ask if there needs to be anyone else included
Make sure to discuss in ward rounds or meetings that myBeepr group chats will be used throughout the day, to ensure that everyone is on the same page
Don’t forget to include locum doctors, seconded staff and agency nurses (if any)
myBeepr is a secure, clinical collaboration tool which enhances communication. Traditional technologies are no longer up to standard. There are numerous examples in which group chats can be created in myBeepr and our advice is to create essential chats for your care team, department and multidisciplinary teams, include all relevant members into the group and ensure that myBeepr is used throughout the day.