COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
REPORTS 2017
Prepared by: (YOUR NAME HERE)
TABLE
OF CONTENT
1.0 EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY 3
2.0 INTRODUCTION 3
3.0 COMPANY
PROFILE 5
4.0 THE
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS FUNCTIONS 7
4.1 Roles and responsibilities 7
4.2 Internal and External Sources of
Communication 8
4.3 The Corporate Communications Function 10
5.0 IMPROVING
COMMUNICATIONS IN KPJ 11
5.1 Core Principles 11
5.2 Priority 1: Brand development and
reputation management 12
5.2 Priority 2: Providing, developing and
embracing digital
communications
platforms 13
5.3 Priority 3: Building on our success and
doing the basics well 14
6.0 ICT APPROACHES TO THE COLLECTION,
FORMATTING, STORAGE, DISSEMINATING INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN AMPANG
PUTERI 16
PUTERI 16
6.0 CONCLUSIONS 20
REFERENCES 21
1.0
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
The
2016 KPJ Ampang Puteri Annual Reports under the company communication strategy
says:
“The
KPJ Ampang Puteri Plan sets out a ten-year vision … in which patients always
come first and front-line staff are given more responsibility for delivering
the care they need. Such a huge cultural shift may be difficult to achieve …
communications is vital to driving this process of change. This is not
primarily about dealing with the media. It is about how the KPJ communicates
with patients, the public, its own staff and other organizations."
In
developing an internal communications strategy, the KPJ Ampang Puteri recognizes
that our staff are our stakeholders, our representatives and our most powerful
advocates and that communication by staff, and with staff, at all levels is
essential to bring about involvement and engagement, and contribute to job
satisfaction.
This
strategy has therefore been developed to support an organizational culture in
which all staff feel involved with and valued by the Trust and the people they
work with, and in which all staff understand the responsibilities they have in
communicating with colleagues and patients, and in giving a positive impression
of the hospital within the local community.
In
order to achieve these aims, the communication strategy outlines a vision for communication,
identifying and recognizing the various communication needs of staff depending
on their individual circumstances, analyze the communication methods currently
available, and plan improvements and methods of evaluation.
It
also develops key strategic objectives for communications, and identifies early
priorities to achieve improved communication at all levels within the hospital.
2.0
INTRODUCTION
Communication
has become a strategic element capable of positively influencing the medical services
provided to patients. Hospitals undertake different communication actions:
online communication, marketing, and events. However, the types of medical services
provided to patients and the high number of workers employed by these
organizations, who have direct contact with patients, transform internal
corporate communication into the most important communication initiative for a
hospital. Internal communication has different objectives, is divided into
different types, uses multiple tools, reflects different strategies, and is
based on a respect for ethics. The increasing importance of internal communication
combined with the limited communication traditionally demonstrated by hospitals
justifies the analysis of organizational performance and its impact.
The
main players in communication in a hospital consist of medical staff, nursing
staff, patients, the families of patients, health executives, and employees who
perform various administrative or maintenance duties (Medina, 2011). From a
communicative standpoint, the medical staff assumes significant responsibilities
because they must use interpersonal communication to understand the pathology,
needs, and expectations of patients and assist patients with reducing stress,
improving adherence to treatment, and exercising self-control (Edgar,
Satterfield and Whaley, 2005). Nursing staff are critical to hospital
communication because the patient frequently expresses a greater trust in
nurses than in other medical staff (Berry, 2007). As the recipient of the
majority of communicative acts, the patient is the main player in hospital communication
(Buckley, 2008). Because a patient’s family can influence their decisions about
treatment, excellent communication between families of patients and the medical
and nursing staff is crucial. Health executives assume transverse
responsibilities in areas such as coordination, employee motivation, and
distribution of information within the organization. Administrative and
maintenance employees also influence hospital communication (Medina, 2011),
especially employees who are involved in the final contact with the patient, which
is common in this type of organization.
The
development of a corporate communication culture should be based on the
strategic use of internal and interpersonal communication (Parsons, 2001). This
action requires that the hospital have a communications department that is primarily
responsible for defining the brand architecture of the hospital, i.e., identity,
values, mission, vision, culture, and image (Medina, 2011). Corporate identity
is related to the image and vision of a company (Van Riel, Fombrun, 2007) and
is defined as the principles that differentiate an institution from its
competition, i.e., the raison d'être of an organization. Identity influences
every aspect of a company and serves to connect these aspects. To define
identity, we must investigate the external image of an organization (Costa, 2001)
and identify attributes that society uses to describe the organization (Van
Riel, Fombrun, 2007). An organization should outsource its identity to generate
cohesion between the employees and the organization and must measure three
variables: organizational performance, communication actions, and symbols (Van
Riel and Fombrun, 2007). In addition to identity, the hospital defines its
corporate values; according to Aiken & Sloane (2002), corporate values are
shared by the employees of an organization and are used to build trust and
foster communities. Organizations should create, disseminate, and maintain
these values to unite their corporate communicative actions (Long, Iedema,
Bonne Lee, 2007).
Thus,
this report is prepared to identified, analyzed and improving communication in
KPJ Ampang Puteri. his report also aims to provide the opportunity how
communication, knowledge and information can be developed and used to improve
communication within the hospital and with other organization. This reports also covers how IT system can be
used as a management tool for collecting, storing and dissemination and
providing access to knowledge and information. Finally, a detail recommendation
will be discussed in improving the IT infrastructure in KPJ Ampang Puteri for
strategic and effective communication in the hospital.
3.0
COMPANY
PROFILE
Located
just five minutes from downtown Kuala Lumpur, KPJ Ampang Puteri Specialist
Hospital (APSH) is one of Malaysia’s leading specialist hospitals, with a long
list of national and regional awards for safety and quality of medical care.
Ampang Puteri is part of the KPJ Healthcare Group, one of the leading private
healthcare providers in the region with more than 26 years’ experience in the
healthcare industry.
In
2009 alone, KPJ Healthcare Group facilities treated nearly 207,000 inpatients
and 2 million outpatients. APSH, which opened in 1995 and has 230 beds, is one
of five KPJ hospitals in Malaysia serving international health travelers.
The
hospital has several centers of excellence including those dedicated to
cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, comprehensive health screenings,
neurosurgery, orthopedics, and reconstructive surgery. In 2008, APSH opened a
pain management center, treating back and neck pain, trigger-point pain,
myalgia, fibrositis, fibromyalgia, cancer pain, and complex regional pain
syndrome. The hospital has performed more than 15,000 reconstructive surgeries
of which one-third were for patients from other countries.
APSH
is a state-of-the-art private medical center with extensive diagnostic and
therapeutic resources, including endoscopic suites, hemodialysis centers,
cardiac catheterization, and magnetic resonance imaging facilities. Medical
specialists are highly qualified professionals with extensive international
qualifications and are supported by well-trained paramedical staff.
The
facilities reflect the comprehensive range of APSH’s specialties including
cardiac care, renal dialysis, gallstones, neurosurgery, and reconstructive
surgery. The hospital recently expanded its capacities for lithotripsy,
hemodialysis, and pain management. Holistic care-based home nursing services
also are available for patients recently discharged and who are staying within
a 10-kilometer (six mile) radius of the hospital. The accident, emergency, and
outpatient services operate 24/7 and are manned by a medical officer and teams
of experienced nurses and aides.
Figure
1: KPJ Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital in Ampang.
4.0 THE CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS FUNCTIONS
4.1 Roles
and responsibilities
All
members of staff throughout the organization have a part to play in supporting
the delivery of effective communication, ensuring this takes place internally
with each other, by engaging with partners and the public and by helping us
share good news about our services. Communication is everyone’s business and is
not the responsibility of the Communications Team alone.
However,
there are specific tasks and responsibilities that are performed and managed by
the team. The Communications Team provides leadership, technical expertise,
advice, guidance and support on all communications issues. Our responsibilities
currently include but are not limited to:
·
brand and reputation
management
·
media relations
·
internal communications
·
campaign management
·
web/intranet content
development
·
graphic design
·
project support for key
corporate developments and service change
·
support for emergency
planning/major incidents
Figure
2: Structure of the Corporate Communications function
4.2 Internal
and External Sources of Communication
Internally
– With in excess of 2,000 members of staff across more than one acute hospital
site, communicating internally can be a challenge. At a corporate level we
currently have the following internal communications tools at our disposal:
·
the intranet
·
Outline magazine
(monthly)
·
Involve - monthly staff
briefing leaflet circulated via global email and monthly open verbal briefing
by the Chief Executive held on both sites
·
global email
·
screensavers
·
posters, leaflets,
other printed materials
·
100 Leaders events
·
At an operational level
the responsibility to communicate with staff is passed
·
by cascade from senior
management to their teams.
Externally
– our Communications Specialists have established excellent relationships with
local media and manage the news agenda on a daily basis. Between August 1, 2015
and July 31, 2016, the Communications Team received 592 media enquiries.
Although the type and/or quality of coverage is not currently measured we know
by recording the nature of all enquiries that the main issues for our local
media can be broadly categorized as below:
·
finance and
performance: perceived mismanagement of finances, CQC and Monitor
interventions, fines, missed targets, investment, capital development
·
patient
experience/quality of services: poor/excellent experience, new initiatives,
SUIs, new treatments, innovation
·
staff: jobs at risk,
Unison action, staff survey, staff awards
·
corporate:
sustainability, new contracts, reconfiguration, MP/high profile visits
Our
methods of communicating with our external audiences are predominantly traditional,
via:
·
press releases
·
news events - campaign
launches, interviews, photocalls
·
our website
·
production of corporate
materials - posters, documents, newsletters
Positive
news coverage is generated on a weekly basis through features and news stories
with local press and radio stations. All coverage is shared on a daily basis
with the Chair and Chief Executive and is uploaded to the intranet. The outcome
or impact of our coverage is not formally recorded or evaluated.
4.3 The Corporate Communications Function
The
Communications Team is a corporate function and plans, tailors and delivers key
corporate messages throughout the organization. Tasks are currently prioritized
in accordance with their direct relevance to the delivery of the corporate objectives.
Organized workload of this kind operates concurrently with the management of
the press office function, with media enquiries handled daily regardless of scheduled
work. As a consequence, the team can find it hard to make time for forward-planning.
The extent to which the Communications Team is able to provide robust responses
to media enquiries is often limited by the availability/willingness of key
spokespeople to provide media interviews.
Along
with other departments within the organization, the team works alongside HR and
Patient Experience to support the delivery of individual projects, such as the
Staff Survey and Awards, and promotion of Inpatient/ Outpatient Surveys. The
support provided to these two key departments is not formalised or defined.
Sourcing
information for proactive communications can be a challenge for the team and is
heavily reliant on established channels via project groups, meeting minutes or
management cascade. Innovations, individual awards/ recognitions may not be
communicated via these methods and opportunities for promoting key messages may
be lost in these instances.
While
visitors to our hospitals can post news, comments, images and videos to any
number of online forums, the Communication Team’s ability to respond quickly
and easily to events is currently limited to what can be provided via a PC at a
desk. While our website’s Content Management System (CMS) can be accessed
remotely, there are no smartphones within the team to do this. As a
consequence, opportunities to update our audiences at a pace at which they are
currently able to engage are missed.
Crucially,
the team’s ability to assess performance and monitor the impact of campaigns is
limited to what we know about the effectiveness of communications at an organizational
level. The annual Staff Survey provides valuable insight into overall effectiveness
of staff communications and engagement. Patient experience data enables us to
understand any reputational issues which may need addressing.
When
considering the model for effective communicating organizations thorough and
analytical evaluation of our communications activities are largely absent from
our corporate function. In addition, the communications perspective is not
fully embedded within the organization with no senior communications presence
at Board or Executive level. Communications requirements are not routinely
considered at the point of strategy development, leading to last minute
requests for support and an unpredictable workload for the team.
5.0 IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS IN KPJ
5.1 Core
Principles
A
set of principles will help guide the work of the Communications Team and
others working to deliver effective communications within the organization:
ü strategic:
we will justify everything we do by showing how it contributes to the
objectives of the organization
ü transparent:
our communications are attributed, open and honest
ü mainstream:
communications is core business for the hospital and everyone has a
contribution to make
ü audience:
all communications will be specifically targeted, crafted with a particular
stakeholder group in mind. Our stakeholders are defined in the Stakeholder
Engagement Strategy
ü improvement:
we will learn from the best and explore opportunities to be better
ü partnerships:
we will work with relevant partners in other organizations to minimize
duplication and ensure consistency
ü practitioners:
we are the communications experts and will take the lead on advising and
supporting others to deliver good communication
ü evidence
based: we will evaluate what we do, learn from mistakes, build on success and
improve as a result.
5.2 Priority 1: Brand development and
reputation management
The
changing policy landscape means reputation management is becoming increasingly
important to all KPJ organizations. Reputations are built by developing strong
and valuable relationships with key stakeholders and cannot be managed by one
team alone. Our reputation consists of the perception that stakeholders develop
through their accumulated experience of our hospitals, both in their direct
contact with staff and services and via external influences such as the media.
It is only as good as the actions of the staff they come into contact with in
our organization.
External
influences on our reputation will continue to become increasingly important as
the development of online communities, and the speed at which they can build or
damage reputation, continue to grow. A good reputation amongst staff ensures better
levels of morale and an increased ability for the Trust to retain and recruit staff.
It also increases an organization’s ability to implement change as staff
embrace the organization’s vision and values.
Understanding
the issues which arise as a result of Inpatient and Outpatient Surveys will
help us assess our reputation with those who have direct experience of our services
and staff. In 2016 the Care Quality Commission visited KPJ Ampang Puteri and
KPJ Pantai and presented positive reports; the national inpatient survey showed
93% of patients rated their care as good, very good or excellent. We will;
·
work with the patient
experience team to explore opportunities to gain insight into the impact of
communications activity and the effect on reputation, capture information
gathered through informal routes, such as focus groups
·
promote an awareness
among staff of the value of relational and reputational capital, working with
service lines to develop materials to support communications channels and with
Education, Learning and Development to influence communications training
·
monitor and evaluate
media activity to assess the impact of our communications output and adjust
accordingly to manage and build reputation
·
produce a monthly
reputation report, circulated to the Executive Team
·
the hospital's vision
and values are the foundation of our brand identity. They define what we stand
for and reflect our ambitions as an organization. We will;
·
review the use of our
internal/external branding to ensure best approach
·
monitor and maintain
consistency of all branding across all traditional and online communications
platforms
·
develop a brand center
to facilitate consistent use of branding while empowering and educating others
·
identify ways to
further embed the values throughout the organization.
5.2 Priority 2: Providing, developing and
embracing digital communications platforms
The website:
The hospital website and intranet are now supported by a new Content Management
System and much of the information on the old sites has now been updated and
migrated into the new platform. An organization’s website can no longer act
solely as a digital brochure, something that we have recognized during the past
18 months of the Web Redevelopment Project. In order to build and further develop
our sites we will:
·
establish a culture of
continuous improvement in relation to web development
·
exceed the expectations
of our users, using the best of technology to improve patient experience via
our websites
·
explore opportunities
for the development of a mobile website
·
empower staff to manage
their own web content and communicate directly with patients via the CMS
The intranet:
Successful intranets are no longer simply information or document stores, they
are forums for collaboration and knowledge sharing, useful tools for performing
key tasks, and engaging platforms where the organizational values are evident
and culture is developed. We will:
·
produce an intranet
development strategy aimed at addressing key staff engagement and involvement
issues within the hospital
·
facilitate
collaboration and initiate a shift in staff culture from passive to active
knowledge acquisition
Social media:
The way people access and share information has changed dramatically in the
past decade. The development of a Social Media policy and associated Code of
Practice will define how appropriate and considered use of social media will
support the achievement of our objectives and improve stakeholder engagement.
By using social media as a communications tool, we will:
·
support the general
public’s expectation for enhanced access to online information
·
improve the trust’s
ability to effectively get information to its stakeholders, including diverse
audiences, through a more balanced approach
·
ensure that the
Hospital’s communications spend is used effectively (social media is a free
method of reaching a wide audience)
·
gain useful insight
into the public’s perception of our services or topics that are of interest to
target audiences
·
increase openness and
transparency of information and provide more accessible customer service by improving
Hospital ability to respond to questions, requests and inaccurate information
online in real-time.
5.3
Priority 3: Building on our success and doing the basics well
In
recent years, the Communications Team has directly supported the successful completion
of key Trust developments including the opening of the Women’s Centre in 2011,
the internal communication of the Safety campaign, the creation of the Kindness
and Respect Behaviour Standards, the redevelopment of our web and intranet
sites and the re-design of our corporate brochures. In addition, the team produces
a monthly newsletter, a quarterly FT Members newsletter and a monthly team
brief.
It
is important for us to build on these successes and to organize our small team
so our work is efficient, effective and has maximum impact:
Internal communications
and engagement: Our organization is not only
judged on its corporate words and actions, but by the myriad of individual
transactions that take place on a daily basis between our staff and patients.
High quality, effective communications must be carried out at all levels of the
organization. To enable our staff to better convey the organizational
narrative, we will:
·
align the work of the
Communications Team more closely with the work of the service lines, providing
a detailed proposal of the support available
·
develop toolkits and
supporting materials to empower service lines and divisions to communicate
effectively with staff
·
develop an intranet
strategy to employ social elements, facilitating staff engagement and
meaningful dialogue
GP communications:
In the current climate of KPJ reform, building partnerships with our future GP
commissioners will be essential if we are to shape future service provision
that best meets the needs of local people. GPs are a trusted source of healthcare
advice and have a strong influence over a patient’s choice of provider. To facilitate
better communications, we will:
·
explore opportunities
to further develop and promote the GP section of the website
·
develop a new
e-newsletter with targeted content
Media and public
relations: Having the resources, knowledge,
expertise and flexibility to deal with reactive and crisis communications will
always be an essential prerequisite for any communications team. Time should
also be made available to organize proactive public relations campaigns, redress
the balance when the hospital is under fire and consider approaches for
positive but more time-consuming media opportunities. We will:
·
use relationships with
service lines to identify and forward plan positive PR opportunities
·
identify and train
informed, key spokespeople throughout the organization to speak publicly on a
range of high profile issues
·
reorganize workload
within team to provide protected planning and evaluation time.
6.0 ICT APPROACHES TO THE COLLECTION,
FORMATTING, STORAGE, DISSEMINATING INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE IN AMPANG PUTERI
6.1 Knowledge
In
healthcare, we have the presence of both explicit and tacit forms of knowledge.
Explicit knowledge is available in medical journals, research reports, and
industry publications. Explicit knowledge can be classified under: internal and
external. Internal are those that are relevant to the practice of medicine,
such as medical journals and research reports. External are legal,
governmental, and other publications that do not directly affect patient
treatment methodology but govern general medical practices. Three dimensions in
health information outlined by Sorthon, Braithewaite and Lorenzi (1997) include
management information, professional information, and patient information.
Overlap and commonalties are identified, but fundamental differences exist in the
types of information required for each dimension, the way the information is
used, and the way standards are maintained. The achievement of a comprehensive
and integrated data structure that can serve the multiple needs of each of
these three dimensions is the ultimate goal in most healthcare information
system development. Tacit knowledge is found in the minds of highly specialized
practitioners, such as neurosurgeons or cardiac arrest specialists. Much of
tacit knowledge resides in the minds of individuals. Seldom does efficient
knowledge sharing take place. One exception to this is where practitioners
exchange know-how at industry or academic conferences. This, however, happens
on an all-too-infrequent basis.
Figure
3: Staged look at knowledge management
6.2 Knowledge Capture and Storage
Once
gathered, knowledge needs to be captured and stored to allow for dissemination
and transfer. Two strategies are common for capture and storage: codification
and personalization. The codification strategy is based on the idea that
knowledge can be codified, stored and reused. This means that the knowledge is
extracted from the person who developed it, is made independent of that person
and reused for various purposes. This approach allows many people to search for
and retrieve knowledge without having to contact the person who originally
developed it. Organizations that apply the personalization strategy focus on
dialogue between individuals, not knowledge objects in a database. To make the
personalization strategies work, organizations invest heavily in building
networks or communities of people. Knowledge is shared not only face-to-face,
but also by e-mail, over the phone and via videoconferences. In the medical
domain, the codification strategy is often emphasized, because clinical
knowledge is fundamentally the same from doctor to doctor. For instance, the
treatment of an ankle sprain is the same in London as in New York or Tokyo.
Hence it is easy for clinical knowledge to be captured via codification and to
be reused throughout the organization.
Knowledge
capture has been one of the most cumbersome tasks for hospitals. Until rather
recently much of the patient knowledge was stored in the form of paper reports
and charts. Moreover, the knowledge was dispersed throughout the hospital
without any order or structure. Knowledge was also recorded in different
formats, which made summarization and storage difficult.
Recently
we have seen advancements in the technology of Electronic Medical Records
(EMRs). EMRs are an attempt to translate information from paper records into a
computerized format. Research is also underway for EMRs to include online
imagery and video feeds. At the present time they contain patients’ histories,
family histories, risk factors, vital signs, test results, etc.. EMRs offer
several advantages over paper-based records, such as ease of capture and
storage. Once in electronic format, the documents seldom need to be put through
additional transformations prior to their storage.
Tacit
knowledge also needs to be captured and stored at this stage. This takes place
in multiple stages. First, individuals must share their tacit know-how with
members of a group. During this period, discussions and dialogue take place in
which members of a group validate raw tacit knowledge and new perspectives are
sought. Once validated, tacit knowledge is then made explicit through capture
in electronic documents such as reports, meeting minutes, etc., and is then
stored in the knowledge repositories. Use of data warehouses is common for
knowledge storage. Most data warehouses do have web-enabled front-ends to allow
for optimal access.
6.3 Knowledge Transfer and Dissemination
Knowledge
in the hospital once stored centrally needs to be made available for access by
the various organizational members. In this manner knowledge assets are
leveraged via diffusion throughout the organization. One of the biggest
considerations here is security. Only authorized personnel should be able to
view authorized knowledge. Techniques such as the use of multiple levels of
passwords and other security mechanisms are common. However, organizational
security measures also need to be in place. Once the authorized users get hold
of the knowledge, care should be taken while using such knowledge, to avoid
unscrupulous practices. Moreover, employees need to be encouraged to follow
basic security practices, such as changing passwords on a frequent basis,
destroying sensitive information once used, etc. Ensuring security is a multi-step
process. First, the individual attempting to access information needs to be
authenticated. This can be handled through use of passwords, pins, etc. Once
authenticated, proper access controls need to be in place. These ensure that a
user views only information for which he or she has permission. Moreover,
physical security should also be ensured for computer equipment such as servers
and printers to prevent unauthorized access and theft.
Disseminating
healthcare information and knowledge to members outside the organization also
needs to be handled with care. Primarily physicians, clinics, and hospitals
that provide optimal care to the patients use health information. Secondary
users include insurance companies, managed care providers, pharmaceutical
companies, marketing firms, academic researchers, etc. Currently no universal
standard is in place to govern exchange of healthcare knowledge among industry
partners. Hence, free flow of healthcare knowledge can be assumed to a large
degree. From a security perspective, encryption technologies should be used
while exchanging knowledge over digital networks. Various forms are available
such as public and private key encryptions, digital certificates, virtual
private networks, etc. These ensure that only the desired recipient has access
to the knowledge. An important consideration while exchanging knowledge with
external entities is to ensure that patient identifying information is removed
or disguised. One common mechanism is to scramble sensitive information such as
social security numbers, last and first names. Another consideration is to
ensure proper use by partners. Knowledge transferred outside the organization
(i.e., the hospital) can be considered to be of highest quality as it is
validated multiple times prior to transmittal.
Medical
data needs to be readily accessible and should be used instantaneously. The
importance of knowledge management cannot be stressed enough. One aspect of
medical knowledge is that different people need different views of the data.
Let us take the case of a nurse, for instance. He or she may not be concerned
with the intricacies of the patient’s condition, while the surgeon performing
the operation will. A pharmacist may only need to know the history of medicine
usage and any allergic reactions, in comparison to a radiologist who cares
about which area needs to be x-rayed. Hence, the knowledge management system
must be flexible to provide different data views to the various users. The use
of intelligent agents can play an important role here through customization of
user views. Each specialist can deploy customized intelligent agents to go into
the knowledge repository and pull out information that concerns them, thus
avoiding the information overload syndrome. This will help the various
specialists attend to problems more efficiently instead of being drowned with a
lot of unnecessary data. Another dimension of knowledge management is the
burden put on specialists. A neurosurgeon is paid twice as much, if not more,
than a nurse. Hence, we should utilize their skills carefully to get the most
productivity. Expert systems play a crucial role here in codifying
expertise/knowledge. When a patient comes for treatment, preliminary test and
diagnosis should be handled at the front level. Expert systems help by
providing a consultation environment whereby nurses and other support staff can
diagnose illness and handle basic care, instead of involving senior-level
doctors and specialists. This allows for the patients that need the care of experts
to receive it and also improves employee morale through less stress.
6.0 CONCLUSIONS
This
Communications Strategy outlines key areas for development over the next ten
years, focusing on three core areas to enable us to become a more strategic and
effective communicating organization.
The
communications function comprises of a small team with a wide remit to guide and
protect corporate reputation, improve communications standards and influence decision-making
at a senior level. It is vital that the function has the tools, skills and buy-in
of the senior team to support further develop communications within the organization
and achieve the goals that have been set.
It
is important to note that many of the key areas for development may not be achievable
within the current available resources of the department.
If
the priority areas for development are endorsed by the Board, we propose the next
stage of strategy implementation will be to identify any gaps in organizational
structure and resources required and put forward plans to address these.
Effective
communication is something to which everyone within the organization can and
should contribute. We welcome feedback on this vision for the future of communications
within our organization and look forward to working with our colleagues to
deliver it.
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