Improving Team Collaboration in Patient Transfer Processes by Co-Workers’ Perceptions and Suggestions

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose was twofold: first to describe how co-workers within a team perceived team collaboration in patient transfers from an intensive care unit (ICU) to general wards and, second, to describe co-workers’ suggestions for an improved future state of team collaboration. Methodology/Approach: Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted at two medium-sized hospitals located in Sweden. Participants were multidisciplinary and from both ICUs and general wards. Data were analysed using qualitative deductive content analysis. Findings: An expressed need for improving team collaboration was a defined and well-designed ICU transitional care process with a holistic view of how to create quality of care, and a standardised process for continuous improvements. This should involve co-workers from different professions and hospital units, as well as patients and relatives. Other views raised by the co-workers were clearer definitions of roles, responsibilities and deeper insights on how team members depend on each other’s work efforts to succeed. Research Limitation/Implication: This study was conducted at two hospitals, hence no generalizable conclusions can be made. Originality/Value of paper: Co-workers collaborating in a ICU transitional care process can have important insights in how to improve team collaboration. This can be of great importance in increasing quality of care where multiprofessional teams from different organisational cultures are collaborating.

Success Factors for Quality and Safety of Intensive Care Unit Transitional Care – Listening to the Sharp End

“…Implementing regular patient safety huddles (Fencl and Willoughby, 2019) and interdisciplinary team care interventions with staff from the ICU and general wards could be solutions to improve patient safety and quality of care and focus on the customer (patient and/or relatives). This is in line with Sten et al (2021), who found that coworkers want to involve patients and relatives in improving team collaboration when seeking quality care.…”

“…Furthermore, delays in the patient transfer process can be reduced by early evaluation, timely team communication, and proper preparation (Alali et al, 2019;De Grood et al, 2018). Also, involving and communicating decisions to the whole team and across organisational boundaries can avoid the perception of 'parallel systems' (Sten et al, 2021).…”