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

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

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02586779

Enrollment

300

Registered

2015-10-26

Start date

2015-10-31

Completion date

2016-03-31

Last updated

2016-03-04

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Communication

Keywords

Referral and consultation, emergency department, WhatsApp

Brief 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.

Detailed 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 Many hospitals still use outdated pager systems as the foundation for clinical communication between physicians and other health care professionals. But, outdated pager systems contain some problems including long waiting-times for the return of a page, high costs, frequent interruptions, and the inability to identify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 This outdated communication technologies in healthcare can place patient safety at risk.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.

Interventions

OTHERwhatsApp

whatsApp application will be used for consultations.

OTHERwithout whatsApp

whatsApp application will be not used for consultations.

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

QUADRUPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

19 Years to 80 Years

Healthy volunteers

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

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
arrival duration to emergency department	one month	Examine consulting Physicians' arrival duration to emergency department will be obtained from consultation hours in whatsApp program.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
examine causes of consulting Physicians' arriving late to emergency department from data obtained by questioning of an assistant blinded to the study	one month

Countries

Turkey (Türkiye)

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026