Addressing inter-team communication has been a priority for the VA Provider Digital Health (DHC) Committee since its formation last year. One of its first projects—identifying what should be included in the Team Communication tool in Cerner—has now resulted in updated standards. These rolled out to providers at VGH and UBCH in mid-February.

“The Team Communication initiative represents a collaborative effort between physicians, nursing, and allied health to create a more consistent approach to non-urgent communication across Vancouver Acute,” said VCH Medical Informatics Manager Morgan Chow. “The initiative was in response to physician feedback brought forward through the Digital Health Committee. This work helps reduce workflow disruptions and align non-urgent care team messaging within the patient chart. By harmonizing how interdisciplinary teams share asynchronous updates in Cerner, we are supporting safer, more coordinated patient care.”

VCH Clinical Informatics has developed both a quick reference guide and a Team Communication guideline to help us better understand what Team Communication is and who should use it when. You can also access a Team Communication Workflow in CST Cerner Help.

For information that does not require an immediate response, Team Communication is a tool for simple, non-urgent messaging between members of the inpatient care team, including inpatient providers, nursing teams, and allied health professionals. It supports safe, efficient care and complements real-time communication when clinically appropriate.

A memo outlining what this looks like in day-to-day practice was issued prior to the standards being updated and provider educators were available to assist with questions, workflow clarification, and hands-on guidance immediately after their implementation. Training materials, access instructions, and examples are available via CST Cerner Help.

“Team Communication is one of the first deliverables from the VA Provider Digital Health Committee, and it’s a good illustration of what this committee is for,” said VA Associate Chief Medical Information Officer Dr. Stephen Van Gaal, who co-chairs the committee. “The tool didn’t require any new programming—the functionality already existed in our EHR. What it required was physicians and frontline clinicians working through how we actually communicate and configuring the system to match. That’s a different kind of work than most people associate with EHR improvement, but in my experience it’s where a lot of the unrealized value sits—not in building new technology, but in making deliberate, clinician-informed decisions about the technology we already have. The VA Provider Digital Health Committee gives us a standing structure to do that work systematically, and Team Communication is the first of what we expect to be many improvements that come out of it.”