The industry is shifting to collaborative care with physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other staff teaming up to provide better healthcare. The trend is catching on in the C-suite, as well, reported Hospital & Health Networks Daily, as more hospital CEOs become team players, sharing the responsibility of delivering high-quality care at lower costs.
To improve population health, CEOs and executive leaders need to adopt the interdisciplinary team approach, chief exec of New Jersey's Hunterdon Medical Center Robert Wise told H&HN Daily.
Getting CEOs to embrace teamwork also could help prevent medical errors, Frederick Southwick, manager of New Quality and Safety Initiatives at the University of Florida and Shands Health Care System, wrote in a January Hospital Impact blog post.
"Those with higher administrative authority must reduce formality and flatten the power gradient because hierarchical power structures deter open communication and increase the chance of errors," he wrote.
Teamwork, on the other hand, encourages reciprocal communication and reduces errors by having many eyes, ears and brains focused on the same problems, Southwick added.
Last year, several hospitals found that internal teamwork between hospital leadership and medical staff helped them achieve the Institute of Medicine's six objectives of quality care, FierceHealthcare previously reported. For example, medical staff and administration at Torrance, Calif.-based Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center work together to make strategic decisions about palliative care and neonatal ICU care, earning the hospital a 2011 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize.
To learn more:
- here's the H&HN Daily article
- read the Hospital Impact blog post