Use of pager devices in New Zealand public hospitals as a critical communication tool: Barriers & way forward

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyse the current use, identify challenges and barriers and propose a way forward for the use of the pager devices in the in-hospital communications. Methods: Initially, 447 studies were identified through database searching. After checking against the eligibility, 39 studies were included. Full-text records were retrieved and reviewed by two authors. After excluding unrelated studies and duplicate records, a total of 12 articles were selected for the final review.Results: The use of pagers often lacks standardisation, content, format, urgency level, and clarity within the message. Some studies reported that medical staff preferred in-person interactions with consults instead of communicating over the phone or pagers. Productive communication can reduce the turnaround time by up to 50%. The key challenges are; (1) data security and privacy, (2) timely acknowledgement of received communication, (3) lack of two-way communications causing issues in critical care situations and (4) there is no standard process for the in-hospital communications.Conclusion: We found that the clinicians' age, experience, speciality and preferences greatly matter and influence the selection of tools and technology in healthcare. With revolutionary advances in technology, smartphones have inevitably become beneficial to healthcare, owing to multiple instant messaging applications (apps) that can streamline encrypted clinical communi-cation between medical teams and could be safely used for in-hospital communications.

Automated summary

The study aims to analyze the current use of pager devices in in-hospital communications, identify challenges and propose solutions. The use of pagers lacks standardization, content, format, urgency level, and clarity within the message. Some studies suggest that medical staff prefer in-person interactions rather than communicating through phones or pagers. The key challenges include data security, timely acknowledgement of received communication, lack of two-way communications in critical care situations, and the absence of a standard process for in-hospital communications.