Developing and Using Team Performance Measures in Healthcare: Lessons Learned

摘要

Much of healthcare delivery is carried out multi-disciplinary teams. Aspects of team performance such as coordination, communication, leadership, team decision-making have been increasingly recognized in healthcare, as illustrated by a sample of recent publications in healthcare (Catchpole et al., 2007; Klabunde et al., 2007; Main et al., 2007; McCahill et al., 2007; Blom et al., 2007). Studies in trauma resuscitation, intensive care, anesthesia and surgery highlight that clinical skills are necessary but not sufficient to maintain high levels of performance in acute medical specialties (Mackenzie, Martin, & Xiao, 1996; Donchin et al., 1995; Fleming, Smith, Slaunwhite, & Sullivan, 2006; Etchells, O'Neill, & Bernstein, 2003). To improve team performance in healthcare, pragmatic research as well as potentially theoretical research is needed to provide tools and guidance in measuring team performance. However, challenges are abound in measuring team performance (Nielsen et al., 2007; Morgan, Pittini, Regehr, Marrs, & Haley, 2007; Salas, Wilson, Burke, & Priest, 2005). This symposium was organized to present and discuss recent work on measures developed to study team performance in healthcare based on either direct observation or video-based scoring of team behaviors. The focus was on the potential benefits and pitfalls of the various conceptual and methodological approaches in the study of team performance and their relevance to patient safety. The symposium provides a sample of recent efforts around the world by team performance researchers on their team performance measurement efforts in healthcare. Two of the presentations in this symposium report experience on teamwork of surgical teams. Two presentations investigate different episodes in the work of anesthesia teams. One presentation describes work on trauma teams.