Give instructions and information in the patient's language during examination. Overcome language barriers and create trust. This is how our app can help you as a radiology professional.
2023-09-14
Blog
Radiology is one of the largest clinical specialities within healthcare. And working in radiology means meeting patients from practically all other specialities. But it can also mean experiencing high demands on efficiency. And sometimes this can clash with building trust with your patients. At the end of the day this will make patients less cooperative, leading to frustration, time pressure and an increased risk of adverse events.
So what can you do?
In this blog, we’ll explore how you can use our app to communicate, instruct, inform, reassure and calm patients before, during and after radiology examinations. And how you can create the best possible alliance that in turn will help you do your job as a radiology professional more efficiently, while at the same time securing patient safety.
In Sweden, more than 6 million radiology examinations were carried out in 2018. Based on our knowledge that around 14% of the Swedish population has another mother tongue than Swedish, we can estimate that about 840 000 people could use help to communicate with healthcare staff.
But it’s not always clear when an interpreter is needed. Sometimes referring physicians forget to register the need or didn’t know that an interpreter was needed, and sometimes you can’t find a healthcare interpreter that speaks your patient's language.
But don’t worry. This is why we’ve developed Care to Translate.
Care to Translate can be used to communicate throughout the patient journey.
Register patients, ask for identification, instruct the patient on where to wait and where to go.
Introduce yourself, ask important questions about pregnancy, metal objects in the body, explain what will happen during the examination and what clothes the patient needs to remove.
Give instructions on how the patient should position themselves, explain how the patient should breath and inform them of things that can feel uncomfortable.
Inform the patient when the examination is over and what will happen next.
Explain why they need to stay and give instructions on what to do. Inform what is happening if the patient gets a reaction to contrast fluid.
Explain who you are and what will happen and ask important questions about the patient’s health and background.
These are a few examples on how you can use our app for different modalities when communicating with patients.
Instruct the patient to wear a thyroid shield protection, how to position themselves and how to breathe. Explain the procedure and what will happen, and inform the patient if you need to retake images.
Explain and instruct the patient regarding contrast fluid, instruct the patient during the examination or when inserting needles, inform them on how long the procedure takes and if they get any reactions to the contrast fluid.
Go through questionnaires/checklists with the patient, instruct what objects they need to remove before the scan and instruct the patient on how to communicate and what will happen during the examination. Calm the patient via the speaker during the examination.
Help the patient register in the reception, explain the procedure and how the patient should position themselves, and inform them that there might be uncomfortable pressure or cold gel.
Go through the patient history and ask important questions, ask about symptoms and lumps, instruct the patient during the examination and explain when they can expect the results.
Radiology is a vital part of healthcare that we are proud to support with the tools necessary to communicate effectively, no matter the language. Using our app can help radiology professionals to examine patients that otherwise could not have been examined.
Do you want to know more about how we can help your radiology clinic? Book a demo here.
