Effectiveness of WhatsApp (a Messenger Program) Usage in Emergency Department (ED)

Communication Clinical Trial

Official title:

Effectiveness of WhatsApp Messenger Usage and Other Technologises on Communication Between Consulting Physicians and the Emergency Department Staff: Randomised Double-blind Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02586779
• Other study ID #: 2015/04-11
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: October 23, 2015
• Last updated: March 3, 2016
• Start date: October 2015
• Est. completion date: March 2016

Study information

• Verified date: March 2016
• Source: Adiyaman University Research Hospital
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Turkey: Ministry of Health
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Effective communication between consulting physicians and the emergency physicians is critical for patients in the emergency department. The aim of this study was to determinate effectiveness of whatsApp usage for communication between physicians.

Description:

Effective communication between consulting physicians and the emergency physicians is critical for patients in the emergency department. Many hospitals still use outdated pager systems as the foundation for clinical communication between physicians and other health care professionals. But, outdated pager systems contain some problems including long waiting-times for the return of a page, high costs, frequent interruptions, and the inability to identify the location or identity of the caller. This outdated communication technologies in healthcare can place patient safety at risk. Therefore they are no longer seen as an effective communication tool given the obvious advantages of Smart phones. WhatsApp Messenger, which is a messaging program for smart phones, is the most commonly used for communication in at present. As of September 2015, WhatsApp incorporated announced more than 900 million users. This is making it the most globally popular messaging application. WhatsApp Messenger have been started to be used for communication in healthcare. So, this study aims to trial the effect of whatsApp usage for communication between physicians.

Study Design and Setting: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled, single-center, clinical trial was conducted in ED of a tertiary care university hospital with an annual census of approximately 200,000 visits.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 300
• Est. completion date: March 2016
• Est. primary completion date: February 2016
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 19 Years to 80 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Adult patients who performed consultation in emergency department.

2. Patients who are consulted to a physician using whatsApp on a regular basis and who is chosen by an assistant blinded to the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Patients below 18 years of age

2. Missing emergency service consultations

3. Patients with more than one consultation call

4. Consultations which do not determined the arrival duration to emergency service

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor), Primary Purpose: Health Services Research

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Communication
• Emergencies

Intervention

Other:
• whatsApp
whatsApp application will be used for consultations.
• without whatsApp
whatsApp application will be not used for consultations.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Turkey	Adiyaman University Research Hospital	Adiyaman	Central

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Adiyaman University Research Hospital

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Turkey, 

References & Publications (1)

Johnston MJ, King D, Arora S, Behar N, Athanasiou T, Sevdalis N, Darzi A. Smartphones let surgeons know WhatsApp: an analysis of communication in emergency surgical teams. Am J Surg. 2015 Jan;209(1):45-51. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2014.08.030. Epub 2014 Oct 22. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	arrival duration to emergency department	Examine consulting Physicians' arrival duration to emergency department will be obtained from consultation hours in whatsApp program.	one month	No
Secondary	examine causes of consulting Physicians' arriving late to emergency department from data obtained by questioning of an assistant blinded to the study		one month	No