Elevating Patient Safety in Australia

Strengthening Critical Test Results Management with Spok and Epic

As Australian healthcare continues to evolve, clinical communication is increasingly recognised as a core patient safety capability rather than a supporting IT function. Health services are under growing pressure to demonstrate that critical clinical information reaches the right clinician, at the right time, with clear accountability.

Within the third edition of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards, Communicating for Safety (Standard 6) has become a key area of focus for executives, clinical leaders, and accreditation bodies alike. Timely, closed-loop communication, particularly for critical test results, is now viewed as fundamental to safe, high-quality care.

For Australian health services using Epic as their primary electronic medical record, integration with Spok’s clinical communication platform represents a strategic approach to strengthening Critical Test Results Management (CTRM), rather than a standalone technology project.

The Challenge: Ensuring Accountability in a Complex Care Environment

Australian hospitals operate in highly complex clinical environments. High-volume metropolitan emergency departments, regional hospitals, and rural services supported by telehealth all face unique operational pressures. Traditional manual processes, such as phone calls from pathology or radiology to busy clinical areas, remain vulnerable to delays, missed handovers, and incomplete documentation.

Transitions of care, shift changes, and on-call handovers are well-recognised risk points. When critical results are not acknowledged in a timely and traceable manner, health services face increased clinical risk, as well as exposure across quality, accreditation, and medico-legal domains.

At the same time, national digital health strategies continue to emphasise improved interoperability, better use of clinical data, and measurable improvements in patient safety outcomes.

A Structured, Closed-Loop Approach to Critical Results

The integration between Spok and Epic supports an automated, closed-loop workflow for managing critical test results, from result generation through to clinician acknowledgment.

Real-Time Notification from Epic

When a laboratory or radiology result is released into Epic and flagged as critical, an automated workflow can be triggered. Rather than relying on clinicians to manually check inboxes or reports, notifications are generated in near real time based on predefined clinical rules.

Role-Based and On-Call Routing

Integration with enterprise directories and on-call schedules enables notifications to be routed to the clinician responsible for the patient at that specific time. This reduces delays associated with manual roster checks and supports clearer accountability, particularly in large and complex organisations.

Secure, Device-Agnostic Delivery

Notifications can be delivered securely to a range of clinical devices, including smartphones, clinical handsets, and paging systems. This flexibility supports mobility across wards, departments, and facilities while maintaining security and reliability.

Escalation and Safety Netting

If a critical result is not acknowledged within a defined timeframe, automated escalation pathways can notify alternate clinicians or senior staff. This structured fail-safe approach helps ensure results are not missed during periods of high workload or competing clinical priorities.

Supporting Governance, Accreditation, and Quality Improvement

A key benefit of an integrated CTRM approach is the availability of a defensible, time-stamped audit trail covering the full communication lifecycle. This information supports:

• Accreditation and assurance, by demonstrating alignment with NSQHS Communicating for Safety requirements

• Clinical governance, through transparent visibility of response times and escalation outcomes

• Quality improvement, by identifying workflow bottlenecks and opportunities to improve timeliness and reliability of care

Rather than relying on retrospective manual documentation, health services can access consistent, system-generated evidence of communication performance.

Extending Value Beyond Critical Results

While critical test results are a primary use case, many Australian health services are leveraging integrated clinical communication to support broader operational and clinical objectives.

Rapid Clinical Response

Integration with Epic surveillance tools can support timely notification of rapid response or medical emergency teams, improving coordination while maintaining appropriate clinical oversight.

Patient Flow and Operational Efficiency

Automated notifications linked to clinical events, such as discharge orders, can assist downstream teams including environmental services and patient transport. This supports improved bed utilisation and reduced emergency department access block.

Secure Clinical Collaboration

Clinicians can engage in secure, context-rich communication that includes relevant patient information from Epic, supporting faster decision-making while remaining aligned with Australian privacy and information governance requirements.

Workforce Efficiency and Clinician Wellbeing

Reducing unnecessary interruptions and manual follow-up remains critical in an environment of sustained workforce pressure. By filtering notifications and routing only actionable information to the appropriate clinician, integrated communication platforms help reduce alert fatigue and cognitive overload.

Automation of routine communication tasks also returns valuable time to direct patient care, supporting both efficiency and clinician wellbeing.

Executive Perspective

As expectations around patient safety, transparency, and accountability continue to rise, Australian health services are increasingly focused on strengthening the reliability of clinical communication.

By aligning Epic’s clinical data with Spok’s communication and escalation capabilities, organisations can move beyond fragmented, manual processes and adopt a more structured, measurable approach to critical communication. This integration supports safer care, stronger governance, and improved operational performance, all of which are central to executive priorities in today’s healthcare environment.