Building a Successful Interdisciplinary Team—Learning to Love Conflict (TH314)

Abstract

as they become more fragile and in many cases require increasing resources, including clinic and emergency department visits, home services, and hospitalizations. This session will provide a general introduction to several of the newer payment mechanisms emerging as part of the Affordable Care Act, with particular emphasis on integrated practice units (IPUs) and bundled payments. The session will also highlight the development of a bundled payment project at a large, greater-than-900-bed acute-care academic institution that incorporated palliative and supportive care interventions into the IPU care model. The session will be presented by members of the interdisciplinary team that developed this model, including palliative care and pulmonary physicians, a nurse practitioner, and a member of the healthcare system leadership team. Results from the first year of the COPD bundled payment project will be highlighted, including changes in medical care management, order sets, automated tracking and referrals for patients in the bundle, consultation with palliative and supportive care, involvement of home care and pulmonary rehabilitation, and initial financial results from the first cohort of patients. ObjectivesDescribe models of conflict resolution styles and reflect about one's own typical approach to conflict resolution. Identify how one's own personal conflict resolution style may lead to pitfalls in communication with team members who may have different approaches to conflict resolution. Identify reasons for, and potential sources of, conflict among members of an interdisciplinary team. Building a strong integrated team requires careful planning, commitment, and constant nurturing. This session will explore the development of a new palliative care interdisciplinary team, including the challenges and opportunities the team faced as it expanded. An effective, coordinated team must have an efficient mechanism for exchange of information. At the minimum, it requires space and a regular time to meet to share ideas and learn from each other. Given the team members' mixture of skills and professional backgrounds, interdisciplinary collaboration is complex. A diversity of views and differences of opinion are inevitable. Conflict is both necessary and desirable in order for the team to grow and improve. Our team made a commitment to seek formal team training in order to solidify and strengthen our collaboration. During this session we will share what we learned, including writing a program mission statement, defining team core values, identifying our own personal conflict resolution style using validated instruments, and exploring strategies to effectively address conflict using Kerry Patterson's ''Crucial Conversations Model'' as a guide. We will discuss the benefits of conflict on an interdisciplinary team by using cases that illustrate how conflict can encourage innovation, the acquisition of new knowledge, and creative problem solving. Practical conflict resolution skills will be applied to common disagreements among me...