Part 1

"Team Dynamics and Effective Organizational Communication in Health Care, and Cultural Competence in Health Care"  Please respond to the following:

• From the first e-Activity, suggest the major reasons why a well-integrated communication process is important for the performance of any organization and the major reasons why such a process is particularly important in health care organizations. Support your response with at least (2) examples of communication methods used within the researched health care facility in your community.
• From the second e-Activity, explore the concept of "cultural competence", and justify its necessity as a permanent structure of the U.S. health care system. Support your response with at least (2) examples of the possible adverse effects on a health care facility of not practicing cultural competence.

Part 2

You can agree or disagre in the following

Well-integrated communication is important for the performance of any organization to be able to work as an effective team. With good communication, an effective team will communicate with each other, as well as merging their observations, expertise and decision-making responsibilities to optimize service. Good communication in health care is practically important to avoid medical errors, "near misses" and other adverse events. Effective teamwork is essential for patient safety as it minimizes adverse events cause by miscommunication with others caring for the patient, and misunderstanding of roles and responsibilities. Patients are undoubtedly interested in their own care and must be part of the communication process too; their early and throughout involvement has been also shown to minimize errors and potential adverse events. 

The most common communication method in my community is direct message between EMR's. Unfortunately, we do not have integrated EMR's in my community so that each provider can see what another provider has done without obtaining the report. Direct messaging is similar to email, however it is only between EMR's. It makes it very convenient to send reports between providers, facilities and organizations. Once the direct message is received from the sender it is very easy for the receiving provider to upload the document into their EMR and utilize it. Another example of communication method in my community is our Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO). Our RHIO maintains a secure and reliable infrastructure for timely and accurate electronic exchange of clinical information among health care providers and others involved in the delivery of health care services in Western New York and who are connected via the State health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY). All providers within Western New York have unlimited access to the RHIO.

Cultural competency is defined as the ability of providers and organizations to effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients. A culturally competent health care system can help improve health outcomes and quality of care, and can contribute to the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities. Within the nation diversity is increasing bringing opportunities and challenges to health care providers. Racial and ethnic minorities have higher morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases. The consequences range from higher financial burden to higher activity limitations. With diversity increasing, it will increase the financial burden. If we stay on top of cultural competency as a health care system, we can control the financial aspect. 

One example of an adverse effect on the health care facility if not practicing cultural competency is possibly providing a treatment in error. If you are a provider who only speaks English and have a patient that speaks another language (Spanish for example) and you have no formal way for interpretation services, the patient could get the wrong treatment. If the provider is relying on family to translate or attempting to understand bits and pieces of the patients broken English, the provider could misunderstand what the patient is trying to communicate and possibly prescribe them a medication that is not relevant or even worse could result in death. Another adverse effect could be not understanding an illness that a specific culture suffers from. If the provider does not understand the illness and attempts to treat it, they could provide again a wrong prescription or treatment. The patients illness could continue to get worse and the patient will suffer.