Table 2

Types, definitions and examples of message thread characteristics

Message characteristic	Type	Definition	Example	No (n=809)	Per cent
Process	Discharge	Discussion of patients being discharged and preparations for patients to leave the hospital	‘Do you have an anticipated discharge date for [patient)?’	97	12
	Administrative	Discussion of administrative tasks such as staffing, coordinating insurance or other non-clinical-related healthcare info	‘Dr [Name] could you put something in writing for [provider] to fax to help the case.’	115	14
	Clinical Management	Discussion of clinical issues directly related to patient care, such as procedures that need to be done, patient symptoms, test results or other clinical process	‘He has stone in bile duct and cholangitis so we need to do ercp today’ ‘pt on [team], he came in UTI, sepsis, his temp was 39.1, I gave him tylenol earlier, now his temp is 37.4.’	498	62
	Unknown	Process could not be ascertained from context	555–5555, Dr. Smith, team i, John Doe	206	25
Purpose	Assignment	Presenting information regarding assignment of patients to a unit, or assignment of staff to specific tasks	‘Good morning—are you still covering [patient]?’; ‘Team [xx] pls c ER admit. Accepted already by Dr [provider] thanks’	83	10
	Clarification	Correcting or clarifying information that was previously presented	‘for a neph tube placement, is there another reason for the scan? If not a KUB xray would be sufficient for this’ ‘Nope, a KUB would be fine. Thanks!’	126	16
	Notification/update	Presenting new information, usually about a patient’s status	‘Pt had a bs of 442. Put into stabilizer and it says too soon to treat since last bs was put in 3 hours ago. Just wanted you to know about sugar level still being high. Thanks, I'm at [xxxxx]’.	518	64
	Request	Asking for specific task to be done, such as ordering laboratory tests, writing a prescription, or requesting a recipient to check on a patient	‘I am monitoring him for refeeding and has not gotten any labs this am, nor or they ordered. Could we get a bmp with phos and mag Q12’	510	63
	Planning	Discussing future-oriented care decisions, such as follow-up care after discharge or next-day plans for rounding on patients	‘We were thinking 4wks treatment with reimaging and follow up at that point but let me double check’	115	14