Interdisciplinary Teams In Healthcare

Healthcare transformation and the need for high quality patient care at a low cost gave birth to the idea of interdisciplinary team in the health care industry. The term team according to the Websters dictionary is a group of people who work together. This group of people in interdisciplinary team conference comes from different professions, they bring together diverse skills, knowledge and experience to achieve a common goal that only one person cannot achieve, and this goal is always patient centered. These team members include but not limited to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, dietician, physical and occupational therapists, these team collaborate with patient’s families and community to provide high quality care (Brown-Manherzt,

2014).
The effectiveness of interdisciplinary team is proved by a report published by, the annual meeting of the American medical directors association. It states as follows at a 150-bed skilled nursing facility in Hendersonville, N.C., 6 months of an interdisciplinary team approach reduced the use of antipsychotics by 54%, reduced anxiolytic use by 54%, decreased the use of hypnotics more than twice per week by 64%, and lowered psychiatric discharges to hospitals by 72%, Mark Coggins, Pharm.D., and his associates reported in a separate poster presentation (Boschert, 2014).
Another definition of ITC according to one pioneering scholar of team management, states that, the interdisciplinary team is a group of persons who are trained in the use of different tools and concepts, among whom there is organized division of labor around a common problem with each member using his own tools with inter communication and often with group responsibility for a desired final result which is patient care. The purpose of interdisciplinary team conference according to the above definition is to create a robust organized and documented communication and synergy among various health care professionals leading to the achievement of utmost and qualitative care available towards patients and meeting desired treatment goals. The interdisciplinary team members’ work together as a team to establish goals and treatment plans irrespective of their different areas of specialty. Furthermore, the purpose of interdisciplinary team conference includes to collectively provide solutions and treatment of patients who might have multiple chronic illness that requires the expertise or skill of more than one professional to successfully treat or help in the recovery or rehabilitation processes as earlier stated. (Cooper & Fishman, 2003).