SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Reducing Interruptions From Non-Urgent Secure Texts in the Hospital

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Stanford Health Care tested a quality improvement intervention to reduce interruptions from non-urgent secure text messages in the hospital. As secure texting has replaced paging, message volume has grown sharply, creating alert fatigue and disrupting clinicians’ workflow. Hospitalists at Stanford Health Care Tri-Valley reported frequent interruptions, averaging 6.1 per hour from non-urgent text notifications.<br /><br />The team introduced a “Busy Clinician” intervention using the secure texting platform’s native status feature. When clinicians marked themselves as “Busy,” non-priority message notifications were silenced while priority messages could still be delivered. The pilot involved 26 hospitalists and advanced practice providers across four acute care units, comparing a baseline period (Dec. 1, 2023 to Feb. 19, 2024) with the intervention period (Feb. 20 to Apr. 1, 2024).<br /><br />Key findings showed that average message volume per user stayed about the same at 19.1 messages per day, but notification behavior changed substantially. The proportion of messages delivered silently increased from 0.56% to 13.4%, and use of “Busy” status rose from 0.58% to 13.6% of time. Importantly, there was no significant increase in time to read messages, and no safety issues related to delays were identified. Hospitalists reported a significant reduction in interruptions, from 6.1 to 2.6 per hour, and 61.5% of surveyed users felt the intervention improved their workflow.<br /><br />Overall, the study suggests that a simple status-based texting feature can meaningfully reduce unnecessary interruptions and improve clinician satisfaction without compromising message responsiveness or safety.

Asset Subtitle

April S. Liang

Meta Tag

Author List April S. Liang, Brian Phillips, Christopher Sharp, David Svec, Jingkun (Ginger) Yang, Lisa Shieh, Mark B. Keroles, Stav Cullum, Stephen P. Ma, Weihan Chu

Category Innovations

Concept Secure Messaging

Concept Busy Status

Concept Interruptions

Concept Alarm Fatigue

Concept Quality Improvement

Distinguished Non-Finalist

Presenter Organization Stanford University School of Medicine

Presenting Author April S. Liang

Track Technology in Hospital Medicine

Keywords

Stanford Health Care

quality improvement

secure texting

alert fatigue

clinician workflow

Busy Clinician intervention

hospital interruptions

non-urgent messages

message notifications

hospitalists

Secure Messaging

Busy Status

Interruptions

Alarm Fatigue

Quality Improvement