With so much attention focused on health care reform, it is important that nurses be given the opportunity to use high-quality technology tools. These tools can increase access to vital medical information, promote effective communication among health care professionals, and improve the patient experience. By actively seeking out and adopting these tools, nurses can greatly enhance the quality and safety of care that they provide.
This Discussion focuses on identifying quality technology tools that increase the ability of nurses to provide safe, effective care.

( 1 page with 2 references within the last 5 years)
Respond to your colleagues using one or more of the following approaches:
• Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.

My Colleagues’ post
The world of healthcare is continually changing, effective communication among healthcare team members is essential to provide safe and efficient patient care. Basic communications such as telephone, bed-board meetings, word of mouth are no longer the most effective ways of communication regarding patient care. With the change in communication, most healthcare organizations are adopting communication systems which promote effective communication among health care providers and with patients (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018).
Increase in the census has made my organization change the way staff members communicate regarding patient flow and bed track. Last year my organization went house-wide with bed tracking by adopting the Tele Tracking system. Tele Tracking system is a software that manages patient flow, to ensure that patient care is not delayed (Tele Tracking, 2018). The Tele Tracking system is integrated into the electronic bed-board and allows for effective communication throughout the hospital. For example: when a patient has been discharged from the hospital, the charge nurse places a discharge notification in the computer, and the Tele Tracking system automatically notifies environmental services that a bed still has to be cleaned. Also, on the electronic bed-board screen, the Tele Tracking places a brown color on the bed, so the nursing staff is aware that the bed still need to be clean and it is not yet available for occupancy. Another example is when a patient goes down for a diagnostic test such as an MRI, on the electronic bed-board it will say MRI under location.
Knowing of patient status and bed availability has been proven to reduce patient waiting times and decrease overcrowding the emergency department (Blanchard & Rodin, 2016). I do not find any barriers that are hindering its adoption. The Tele Tracking system is easy to use, and I think many healthcare staff in my organization adapted to the system with ease. Utilization of the Tele Tracking system has made the control of patient flow and nursing practice a little less stressful. Knowing when the patient is arriving at the unit has made my patient care prioritization easier.
References
Blanchard, J.C. & Rudin, R.S. (2016). Improving hospital efficiency through data-driven management: A case study of health first, florida. Rand Health Quarterly, 5(4). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5158217/
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K.G. (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.
Tele Tracking. (2018). About us. Retrieved from https://www.teletracking.com/about