Caremunication provides health care professionals with tools and techniques to improve their interactions with patients, families and physicians. Better communication drives higher patient satisfaction, loyalty and the critical "willingness to recommend" scores.

How staff members, middle managers and executives communicate with one another has a significant impact on the work environment. Constructive two-way communication creates a work environment where the best people want to work and grow their careers. For all professionals, we teach ways to improve interactions among colleagues, even when dealing with the most challenging, sensitive issues.

Through the Caremunication curriculum and ongoing support components of the program, staff and managers learn communication skills that lead to better understanding and more accurate transfer of critical operations and clinical information. Fewer breakdowns in communication mean fewer errors and less rework because of missing or misunderstood information.

The fact that "communication" is the leading contributing factor to sentinel events as reported to The Joint Commission is no surprise to front-line staff. In focus group research, hospital employees could often cite specific examples within the previous few days where communication mistakes could have affected patient care. The Caremunication program provides an important complement to a hospital's clinical or department-specific patient safety initiatives.