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6 Reasons Why Microsoft Teams Is Perfect For Healthcare Industry

Posted by Sas Chatterjee on Oct, 31, 2022 03:10

6 Reasons Why Microsoft Teams Is Perfect For Healthcare Industry

Microsoft Teams is perfect for healthcare professionals who need to collaborate with other people across departments or organizations. It provides a secure environment where everyone can have conversations, share files and documents, and securely collaborate on projects. 

The app is available on mobile devices and computers and can be accessed by anyone in the organization through Office 365 Groups. This means that everyone who needs to collaborate will have access to the platform wherever they are located at any time of day or night.

The platform has been designed with ease of use so that even those without technical skills can use the service quickly without needing any prior knowledge about how it works. 

Microsoft Teams allows users to create groups based on specific roles within the organization, such as production staff or marketing team members, so that all relevant information about each person within their team is stored within one database, which means there is less chance of losing important files if something goes wrong.

teams healthcare collaborate in teams

How Microsoft Teams Can Help your Healthcare Organization

Healthcare organizations have been using Microsoft Teams for a while now, but some may wonder how it can help your organization. We’ll go through the functionality Microsoft has developed expressly for healthcare businesses before getting into how to set up and install Teams.

Integration of electronic health records (EHR) and virtual appointments The pandemic hastened the examination and communication of remote patients, demonstrating that it is not only feasible but also, in some circumstances, preferable to that office visits.

Teams may now connect electronic health records (EHR) for a seamless user experience that complies with HIPAA and HITECH certifications. Microsoft Teams’ EHR connection enables healthcare personnel to conduct virtual consultations with clients or employees of their healthcare team using a single hub and a common source of information.

All Administrators Need To Know About Teams Policy Packages

Administrators must understand how Team policy packages may be of assistance. These policy packages allow administrators to grant access to specific programs and files to specific groups inside their business.

In this way, they may manage access without being unduly rigid or giving everyone on the system unrestricted access. Administrators can define different organizational responsibilities, and various groups can be given varying access levels. However, it implies that each group member will be fully equipped with the knowledge necessary to contribute to the patient’s care.

Secure Messaging in Your Teams Organization

Numerous communication methods are available with Microsoft Teams. By way of illustration, you can send a message with a particular priority that continually informs the receiver until it has been read in recognition of the necessity of some healthcare communications. Additionally, senders can ask for alerts that their communication has been read. You may also develop secure messaging for fresh health teams on a patient-by-patient basis. These features are based on policies and can be given to specific people or entire Teams.

When a patient joins a Team, they have access to a secure messaging system where they may communicate with their physician and other Team members and send and receive messages from them. This enables individuals to ask their doctor any queries they may have regarding their illness.

Medical Staff Scheduling App for Microsoft Teams

You may plan your day using the communication platform Microsoft Teams for Healthcare. It enables nurses and other workers to plan timetables, switch shifts, converse with patients, and do much more.

The shift is a tool that nurses may use to exchange shifts and view their schedules. Staff may configure the policy using the Frontline Worker app; by default, the policy includes the Activity, Shifts, Chat, and Calling applications. This policy governs the actions of these applications.

How Digitalization Of Healthcare Can Be Improved Through Microsoft Teams

Digitalization of healthcare is an essential part of modern medicine. However, the digitization process must be accompanied by proper training and optimization of the existing systems so that you can use them more effectively.

Microsoft Teams can help solve this challenge by providing hospitals with a platform for better communication between different parties. Moreover, it will allow hospital staff to share information quickly and efficiently through chat sessions and group messages.

Microsoft Teams consists of various channels, allowing it to properly organize activities and store information. Each channel has its purpose, so it is essential to consider them when planning any activity or to store any information to avoid any errors that could lead to miscommunication.

Team members will never have to worry about being left out or unheard again because smart notifications will ensure that everyone receives messages immediately as soon as they enter a channel or post something new on their profile page!

microsoft teams healthcare

Using Microsoft Teams Templates to Organize Collaboration in a Hospital

Hospitals have several teams for every area, unit, healthcare treatment, and medical unit. As a result, hospitals may use Enhanced Microsoft Teams templates to maintain all teams structured and following a consistent structure and naming policy. Furthermore, they enable you to create pre-built frameworks with channels, pages, and files and establish the correct framework for future teams.

We want to present two real-world examples of how Microsoft Teams templates can assist hospitals in increasing collaboration at scale.

Hospitals need a considerable number of teams: for example, for each department, ward, or medical unit. These teams must have their name and have the same structure as other teams in your organization so they will be easier to manage. You can create multiple copies of a template with different channel names and groupings to give each team its own identity within your organization’s structure.

Enhancing The Online Visit Experience For Patients And Front-Line Staff

The epidemic has impacted the healthcare industry in many ways. One of those ways is the increased use of virtual visits, which have been a boon for patients and frontline staff.

Microsoft is making multiple efforts to meet the various demands of frontline employees. Focusing on frontline healthcare personnel is one of them, particularly concerning virtual visits, which have increased throughout the epidemic due to social distance-creating policies. As a result, the online visitor experience has already been modified in various ways for both patients and support staff personnel.

A summary of the visitor’s information is provided through a feature for planned queuing, which is currently under private preview. From here, patients may receive appointment reminders by email, lowering the likelihood that they won’t show up. Additionally, an online waiting area for a visit will let healthcare providers put their brand and customized greetings in a private preview.

Patients no longer need to download the Teams app on their smartphone to participate in a virtual visit; they may do so immediately. Providers may initiate a visit through Cerner’s PowerChart. At the same time, patients can book and obtain access to online visits from a gateway for an electronic medical record system or a link from a message.

microsoft teams healthcare Yammer

Microsoft Teams Gets Yammer Communities and Other Admin Improvements

Microsoft Teams has been the preferred app for teams on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. However, admins may now interact more effectively with their users and teams thanks to recent enhancements to Teams and Yammer Communities.

Administrators of Microsoft 365 may assign frontline employees to a team set up in addition to a fresh enrollment wizard in the admin center. There are choices here to pick a team name, Team Owners, and privacy policy. Additionally, various Teams channels and applications may be chosen from established templates or developed from scratch.

Starting next month, DocuSign will be a partner in upgrading the Teams’ Approvals feature, enabling the creation and sending of approval requests. Microsoft Word, already available, will also be connected with the Approvals app.

Microsoft has traditionally prioritized teams in its efforts to win over frontline employees. As a result, process management software for distributed teams has been added to the app since 2018, along with time countdown and timetabling features for shift employees and their managers, mobile improvements like location sharing and an “intercom” feature, Yammer Groups for information and training sharing in Teams, and more.

Microsoft Teams is significantly impacting the healthcare industry through new Clinical Continuity Solutions.

Microsoft Teams also plays a central role in a broad portfolio of new Clinical Continuity Solutions designed to help healthcare providers spend less time on logistics and more where it counts: patients.

Teams’ powerful integration with Office 365 allows you to seamlessly move content from your desktop or laptop into Teams. Because it’s so intuitively designed for real-time interaction, it’s easy to use even if you’ve never used an office productivity suite before! 

The Teams-powered logistical use cases provide courageous frontline employees with a much-needed reprieve from the demanding, seemingly never-ending demands on their time. Here are a few highlights:

  • Ensuring that each patient receives the appropriate drug at the appropriate time.
  • Efficiently managing in-hospital deliveries of medicines and supplies.
  • Quickly tracking down missing medication or supplies.
microsoft teams healthcare

Why Microsoft Teams Can Be A Powerful Alternative To Electronic Health Records

It enables healthcare workers to save patient data within the system and distribute it to other healthcare workers. As a result, patients will be treated more successfully and efficiently.

However, nurses still manually gather patient data in many facilities. EHR software is sometimes too large for mobile devices as well. Because of this, nurses must do the task twice: first, they must write all of the data during ward rounds, and then later, they must enter it into the system.

EHR software is not meant to be replaced by Microsoft Teams. However, incorporating it into its surroundings may greatly ease hospital operations. Additionally, it can help medical professionals use instances where an EHR is inappropriate.

Microsoft Teams offers a simple method for entering data from a tablet or phone. As a result, nurses and physicians can dedicate more time to individuals by just doing simple actions, such as entering patient data into an Excel sheet in Teams from a mobile device.

How EPC Group is using Microsoft Teams to transform the Healthcare industry

Microsoft Teams is a secure yet collaborative environment for people to communicate and share files. As healthcare professionals increasingly work with others across different departments or organizations, Teams can offer a way to beat communication problems and help share secure information. 

To ensure that our clients continued serving their clients while minimizing disruptions to their operations, we worked with them on a phased rollout of Microsoft Teams in their organization. 

We began by working with our clients on a trial basis, allowing them to experience how easy it was for them to use Microsoft Teams before making a more permanent commitment. As a result of this phased rollout, we could provide our clients with a customized experience that allowed them to keep serving their clients even during this difficult time.

Sas Chatterjee
About the Author

Sas Chatterjee

Sas Chatterjee is a Senior Architect with EPC Group. His focus lies in making sure that the execution of each engagement is delivered in a forward compatible, best practices manner. Sas is an extremely devoted professional and takes each project he is assigned very seriously. During the project execution phase, Sas invests the time needed with his clients to gain a full understanding of their requirements and develops a roadmap for achieving their desired end goal.

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