  Faulty communication between team members is one of the most important
factors preventing substantial improvement in patient safety. Aviation, nuclear
power and defense have been able to improve their safety record by adopting
theory and model based solutions. In contrast, healthcare's thrust towards
modern communication devices is largely devoid of theoretical foundation. The
objective of this scoping review is to compile communication theories,
frameworks, and models used by high risk organizations outside healthcare to
study and resolve workplace communication issues. The healthcare databases
searched included Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, and PsycInfo. In addition, we
searched engineering and science literature to include articles in the fields
of information sciences, computer sciences, nuclear power generation, aviation,
the military and other domains such as sociology that address the science and
theory of communication. Comprehensive searching was also done in the
communication studies literature. We also reviewed conference proceedings and
grey literature and conducted citation tracking. Our initial systematic search
yielded 15,365 articles. Hand searching and reviewing references resulted in a
set of 181 articles. 144 full text articles were read and 40 of them were
selected to be included in the review. We were able to identify 14 theories and
12 models which could be applied in hospital communication research. However,
it must be noted that most of them have not yet been applied in biomedical
research in hospital communication and as such their applicability can only be
suggested-a gap which future research may be able to address. Formulation of a
custom model representing the unique features and complexities of communication
within hospitals is recommended.
