Medssenger Team
Inefficiency in pre- and post-operative care could lead to complications that prolong recovery, aggravate the patient’s condition, expose the patient to potential infections, or even cause death. Appropriate and high-quality post-operative care is the final yet essential component for a successful procedure. When healthcare providers fail to meet the standards of post-operative care, they put the patients’ well-being at risk and often make themselves vulnerable to viable medical malpractice claims and other legal complications.
Even the surgical procedures themselves could go wrong due to a lack of communication and coordination. According to a study released by WebMD, more than 4,000 people who undergo surgery are injured due to shocking surgical errors that are preventable mistakes known as “never events”. For instance, a “never event” could be when a surgeon performs the wrong procedure, operates on the wrong patient, or operates on the wrong part of the patient’s body. According to the National Practitioner Data Bank, there were 9,744 malpractice judgements related to surgical “never events” from 1990 to 2010 and an astonishing $1.3 billion was paid out in claims and fines.
The current measures in place to prevent surgical errors are inefficient and put the burden on the patient to make sure they get the right surgery as well as proper pre- and post-operative care. Poor coordination between patient and providers before operation often leads to delays or errors, which could compromise the outcome and cost both patients and providers. Furthermore, the lack of efficient post-operative care through follow-up communication, monitoring and coordination leads to failures in closing the loop of care and getting optimal outcomes.
This is where Medssenger can help. The preventable errors and poor outcomes before, during, and after a surgical procedure are mostly caused by inefficient communication between patients and healthcare providers, a lack of coordination within different branches of the provider and across organizations, and bad workflow management. Medssenger’s capabilities allow every party to stay connected to each other throughout the surgical care process, reducing delays and errors in operations and improving the quality of pre- and post-operative care for better outcomes.