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Improving Patient Safety and Care Quality: A Multiteam System Perspective

Pushing the Boundaries: Multiteam Systems in Research and Practice

ISBN: 978-1-78350-313-1, eISBN: 978-1-78350-314-8

Publication date: 24 September 2014

Abstract

Purpose

Early writings about teamwork in healthcare emphasized that healthcare providers needed to evolve from a team of experts into an expert team. This is no longer enough. As patients, accreditation bodies, and regulators increasingly demand that care is coordinated, safe, of high quality, and efficient, it is clear that healthcare organizations increasingly must function and learn not only as expert teams but also as expert multiteam systems (MTSs).

Approach

In this chapter, we offer a portrait of the robust, and albeit complex, multiteam structures that many healthcare systems are developing in order to adapt to rapid changes in regulatory and financial pressures while simultaneously improving patient safety, quality, and performance.

Findings and value

The notion of continuous improvement rooted in continuous learning has been embraced as a battle cry from the boardroom to the bedside, and the MTS concept offers a meaningful lens through which we can begin to understand, study, and improve these complex organizational systems dedicated to tackling some of the most important goals of our time.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgment of Funding Support

This work was supported in part by funding by VHA, Inc. (HHSM-500-2012-007C) and the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) which is funded in part by Grant Number 1KL2TR001077-01 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of VHA, Inc., Johns Hopkins ICTR, NCATS, or NIH.

Citation

Weaver, S.J., Che, X.X., Pronovost, P.J., Goeschel, C.A., Kosel, K.C. and Rosen, M.A. (2014), "Improving Patient Safety and Care Quality: A Multiteam System Perspective", Pushing the Boundaries: Multiteam Systems in Research and Practice (Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 35-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1534-085620140000016002

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited