Multi-Site Comparison of Communications During Intraoperative Pathological Assessment of Breast Tissue

Surgical Pathology plays a crucial role in diagnosing and treating breast cancer. Differences in intraoperative frozen pathology practices are particularly of interest as they involve different workflows and work systems and have the potential to impact the ways in which team communication occurs. We performed observations to compare and contrast the communication involved in the intraoperative pathological assessment of breast tissue at two quaternary hospitals with differing intraoperative pathological assessment practices. We found differences in the roles involved in communicating, the frequency of communications, the modes of communication, and the distribution of spoken communications among roles at the two sites. These differences indicate that the two sites represent very different socio-technical systems, and thus strategies to support effective communication will look different for the two systems.