Healthcare professionals are the backbone of global health, tirelessly dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of communities worldwide. In today’s intricate healthcare landscape, further complicated by global health crises, doctors, nurses, and support staff urgently require robust Tools For Care Teams that foster seamless collaboration. These tools are essential to delivering superior patient care. Both patients and healthcare providers need versatile and convenient methods to connect, regardless of location, to ensure efficient and effective healthcare delivery.
Recognizing these critical needs, Microsoft 365 is introducing innovative capabilities designed to empower care teams. These enhancements facilitate secure communication and collaboration, enabling clinicians and administrators to optimize their workflows, ultimately leading to better patient safety, improved quality of care, and reduced operational costs.
Streamlining Virtual Visits with Microsoft Teams for Care Teams
Traditional in-person doctor visits present considerable hurdles, particularly for patients with limited mobility, weakened immune systems, or those residing in areas with insufficient healthcare professionals or facilities. Telehealth and video conferencing emerge as vital solutions, enabling clinicians to deliver high-quality, personalized, and cost-effective consultations remotely. By leveraging the comprehensive meeting platform within Microsoft Teams, coupled with the integrated Bookings app, healthcare providers gain powerful tools for care teams to schedule, manage, and conduct virtual visits with patients efficiently. This is particularly beneficial for routine follow-ups or consultations that do not require physical examinations.
Once a virtual visit is scheduled via Teams, the patient automatically receives a customized email notification. This email includes all necessary appointment details and a direct link to join the virtual consultation. Patients can effortlessly join from their web browser or the Teams mobile app, simplifying the process and enhancing accessibility. Judith Vincent, a Specialist Nurse at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, emphasizes the ease of use: “It’s very easy to set up the virtual appointments. I can schedule an appointment. An email goes out to the parent with the appointment date and time.” The Bookings app integration within Teams represents a significant advancement in tools for care teams, and is expected to be available shortly.
[](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/Patients-can-join-the-meeting-in-one-click-and-do-not-need a-Teams-license.png)Furthermore, the Microsoft Graph API empowers healthcare organizations to deeply integrate Teams meetings into their existing healthcare workflows. This API facilitates the seamless incorporation of both scheduling and meeting-join functionalities into critical healthcare applications, such as electronic health record (EHR) systems. This level of integration solidifies Teams as a core component of tools for care teams, enhancing workflow efficiency and reducing administrative burdens. Healthcare organizations interested in early access to the Bookings app in Microsoft Teams for virtual visit management are encouraged to complete the provided form.
Enhancing Real-Time Communication within Care Teams
Effective and timely communication is paramount in healthcare. Knowing who is on duty and being able to reach them instantly is crucial for delivering prompt patient care. Traditionally, locating the correct contact information for healthcare staff can be time-consuming and inefficient. Microsoft Teams addresses this challenge with targeted communication features, offering essential tools for care teams to improve internal communications. Currently, Teams enables the manual creation of tags to categorize users based on various attributes like role, specialty, or location. Once tags are configured, users can message entire groups simultaneously within chats or channels. For instance, a message can be sent to all “@Nurses” in a specific department.
Looking ahead, Teams is expanding its targeted communication capabilities to include role-based messaging based on staff shift schedules. This upcoming feature automatically assigns users to tags corresponding to their schedules in the Shifts app within Teams. This integration capability extends to major workforce management systems, including AMiON, JDA, and Kronos, ensuring seamless synchronization and real-time communication updates.
Compliance and Security Tools for Healthcare Organizations
For healthcare organizations, maintaining compliance with stringent regulatory requirements is non-negotiable. Microsoft 365 provides essential tools for care teams to mitigate risks and ensure adherence to industry standards. Microsoft Compliance Score, accessible across all enterprise and business plans, is a powerful tool in this regard. It simplifies compliance management by thoroughly scanning Microsoft 365 environments, assessing system configurations, and offering clear, actionable guidance to strengthen compliance posture concerning HIPAA/HITECH mandates. Healthcare organizations can readily integrate HIPAA/HITECH assessments within Compliance Score to proactively manage and improve their compliance framework.
Real-World Impact: Healthcare Providers Benefit from Microsoft 365
Numerous healthcare institutions are already experiencing the transformative benefits of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York State, has deployed Teams across its entire workforce. Vish Anantraman, AVP Chief Technology Innovation Officer at Northwell Health, notes, “Microsoft Teams is a great platform for collaboration. It is a platform on which we have been able to innovate.” The implementation of Teams has significantly enhanced patient care coordination at Northwell, leading to reduced hospital stays and improved patient outcomes.
Similarly, clinicians at the UK National Health Service (NHS) Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust utilize Teams for virtual patient visits. This has resulted in considerable time savings for both clinicians and patients, alongside enhanced care quality and reduced operational expenses. The NHS Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust exemplifies how Microsoft Teams, as a crucial set of tools for care teams, is improving healthcare delivery across various specialties, including epilepsy and oncology care.
Cerner Corporation, operating in 26 countries, leverages Teams to empower its associates to work more efficiently and drive healthcare innovation using Microsoft 365. Bill Graff, Chief Information Officer at Cerner Corporation, states, “We were looking for borderless mobility, an intelligent work experience infused with AI. And we wanted that work to happen in an environment with tight security from the start. Microsoft 365 delivers on all counts.”
Driving Healthcare Innovation Through Strategic Partnerships
Addressing the evolving challenges within the healthcare sector necessitates strong partnerships between healthcare organizations, industry bodies, and technology innovators. Microsoft is actively collaborating with partners and ISVs in the healthcare domain to foster innovation.
Innovaccer is integrating care management and coordination functionalities directly into Microsoft Teams. This integration aims to minimize redundant tasks, surface actionable insights, and enhance communication across interdisciplinary care teams. Andor Health is empowering clinicians by enabling them to configure custom workflows and seamlessly integrate messages from EHR systems into Teams. This personalization ensures clinicians receive the most relevant information within their collaborative workspace.
Furthermore, building upon the Single Sign-On (SSO) capability introduced last year with Imprivata, Microsoft 365 will now support “badge-tap” access. This enhancement streamlines secure sign-on to applications, whether cloud-based or on-premise. Clinicians can now simply tap their badges for quick authentication and direct access to Teams on mobile and shared clinical devices, significantly improving efficiency and security.
The healthcare industry is in a state of constant evolution. Microsoft is committed to providing cutting-edge tools for care teams through Microsoft 365, empowering healthcare professionals to deliver the highest standard of patient care in this dynamic environment. Explore how Microsoft 365 can empower your care teams today.
