Communcation in the Planning Process

Introduction

This paper is about the role that communication plays in the strategic and program planning processes in a health care organization, this means the different mechanisms used to generate and distribute information within an institution working all together for a common purpose: the prompt delivery of health care services to those who need it. In the following sections a hypothetical program and its delivery will be analyzed and its different components and phases will be commented along with the expected results and addressing the possible difficulties that the implementation of such a program will have, both for the patients and for the functioning of the health care organization as an institution.

Communication is a mechanism provided by nature to a wide variety of organisms that need to handle information for their survival. Among mammals, one of the main instruments for sharing information is sounds, and in the case of advanced primates, language. Language is a series of captured sounds that have a meaning and present a content, it allows the free flow of information from one individual to another. In humans, the contents and ideas that are transmitted can be very complex and abstract or very simple as a negation or an acceptation.

Communication can be based on sounds but also in symbols, which are contained in the alphabet and that can be used in different combinations to provide a coherent piece of communication. In modern times, communication has evolved through a series of technological developments that have revolutionized the communication field year after year. Electric and electronic devices can be used to send and receive communication like in telephones, mobile phones, computers, magnetic cards but also in conventional pencil and paper, hand signs and other symbolisms. Communication is of paramount importance for the health care industry since it provides the technological platform that sustains the internal communication from which depends the effective action of the organization.

Communication in a health care institution can be very complex and includes a series of technologies to keep every member of the personnel actualized with the latests instructions and other operative information. Communication is not the same among doctors and among administrative personnel or nurses, they all have different information needs and therefore will use the most convenient. The institution itself can communicate with its members through radio, microwave mobiles, Internet instant messaging or the main Internet site. When a health care institution wants to implement a program, communication is essential, it is needed to coordinate the action of several members of the staff, communication with the doctors and nurses that will be required, as well as external communication with health care authorities and other strategic partners. In the following sections the implications