Data Silos and Patient Safety: Why Connected Tech is the Unused Key to Better Care

In today’s fast-paced healthcare environment, disconnected systems can be as dangerous as delayed diagnoses. The healthcare industry currently generates more data than any other sector, but up to 97% of this data goes unused due to siloed operations. The inability to access and share data across departments and systems has reverberating effects across healthcare organizations, impacting workforce efficiency, economic margins and patient safety.

Disconnection within health systems goes beyond data and technology—it also affects people. Between attracting and retaining staff, maintaining compliance and security, managing financial margins and providing high-quality patient care, hospital and health system leaders often find themselves juggling priorities. Misalignment between departments and stakeholders can make it difficult to adopt the technology and processes necessary to connect data and improve efficiency and safety. Through intentional collaboration and alignment and gathering feedback from patients and families, healthcare organizations can not only implement new technologies more effectively but also ensure those innovations translate into safer, higher-quality care for their patients.

 Connected technology unlocks safety insights 

Connecting clinical workflows with patient data plays a crucial role in improving patient safety and workforce efficiency. When systems communicate seamlessly, critical information is readily available—reducing the risk of errors, eliminating redundancies and enabling staff to focus more on care. Seamless data access is especially critical for avoiding errors and ensuring continuity during emergencies and care transitions.  With better data flow across departments, care teams are empowered to make faster, more informed decisions.

Connected data is also key to uncovering meaningful insights from past safety incident reports. Today, nearly 1 in 4 patients admitted to the hospital experiences an adverse event, a quarter of which are preventable, and for many healthcare organizations, the status quo is to report the incident, assign blame and repercussions and move on. This response not only fosters feelings of shame and fear around speaking up about medical harm, but it also prevents healthcare organizations from learning and growing from past incidents. Connected technology enables organizations to leverage system-wide insights, from incident reports to credentialing and staffing data, to identify the underlying drivers of safety incidents and near misses. Armed with this knowledge, healthcare staff can take proactive steps to prevent future harm before it occurs.  

Aligning priorities with communication, education and shared vision  

While technology has the power to improve decision-making and patient safety, the successful implementation of the right technology in hospitals hinges significantly on collaboration and leadership alignment. When hospital executives, clinical leaders, IT departments and operational managers are unified in their vision and goals, the rollout of new tools is smooth and effective. Misalignment, however, risks disjointed efforts, inconsistent adoption and wasted resources. 

When leaders at hospitals and health systems are considering implementing new technology or software, there are many considerations that must come into play, including cost, ease of use, data security and patient impact. Alignment among leadership is challenging, but critical to implementing technologies that enhance rather than disrupt care and foster better outcomes for patients. To achieve alignment, healthcare organizations must establish clear communication pathways and collaborative planning processes. This often involves forming multidisciplinary committees that include representatives from clinical, technical, financial and administrative backgrounds. These groups can provide diverse insights during the planning and implementation stages of technology adoption.  

In a mission-driven industry like healthcare, it’s also critical for leadership to articulate how any new technology or process aligns with the organization’s overall vision and strategic goals. Open dialogue, transparent decision-making and the inclusion of frontline staff in the conversation help foster a shared vision and culture of trust. Encouraging frontline and backend staff across departments to sit down with each other and talk about their pain points and priorities can also help to align leaders and ensure smooth technology implementation. 

Finally, collaboration shouldn’t be limited to organizational leaders and staff: it’s critical that healthcare organizations look at patients and their families as part of their multidisciplinary teams, as well. Patients and families can provide valuable feedback on healthcare organizations’ safety practices, care navigation processes and more. Without input from the very people who they are there to help and serve, healthcare organizations are missing a central piece of the puzzle when it comes to decision-making and technology implementation. By speaking with patients and families about their experiences and gathering first-hand feedback on any care or safety gaps, hospitals and health systems can ensure that the technology they implement makes a positive impact on patients and their loved ones. 

When patient safety comes first, progress follows

For a health system to make significant leaps in its patient safety and care quality, its leadership must work together as a unit with a common goal. There are many competing priorities in healthcare, but we must always remember to keep patients at the center of the equation. Everything else has to come second. When leaders are aligned around patient safety and care quality as the single top priority and encourage open communication and collaboration with staff, patients and families, it becomes far easier to implement connected technology that drives patient safety progress.  

 About Dr. Tim McDonald

Tim McDonald, MD, JD, is the Chief Patient Safety and Risk Officer for RLDatix and a Professor of Law at Loyola University – Chicago. He is a Harvard-trained anesthesiologist, pediatrician, licensed attorney, patient safety/medical liability specialist, and author. As the chief patient safety and risk officer for RLDatix, Tim has taken his passion for shattering the wall of silence in healthcare and infused it into our software to better support organizations who are on their journey to more compassionate honesty.