Quantifying the Economic Impact of Communication Inefficiencies in U.S. Hospitals (Student ESSAY‪)‬

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Care delivery is a complex enterprise that involves multiple interactions among multiple stakeholders. Effective communication between these dispersed parties is critical to ensuring quality and safety and improves operational efficiencies. Time and motion studies in hospital settings provide strong evidence that care providers-doctors and nurses--spend a significant proportion of their time obtaining or providing information (i.e., communicating). Yet, surprisingly, no studies attempt to quantify the economic waste associated with communication inefficiencies in hospital settings at a national level.