Effective teamwork in primary healthcare through a structured patient-sorting system - a qualitative study on staff members’ conceptions

摘要

BackgroundPrimary healthcare meets increased demands from an aging population concerning quality and availability while concurrently dealing with a growing shortage of general practitioners and imperfect efficiency in healthcare processes. Reorganization and team development can improve quality and performance but projects in primary care frequently do not attain the targeted results. By developing and introducing a structured patient-sorting system a primary healthcare centre in Western Sweden increased its access rate significantly and employed its medical professionals more efficiently. The aim of this study was to explore staff members’ conceptions of the structured patient-sorting system in order to gain an inside perspective on this project.