For Quality Patient Care, Teamwork In Medicine Is Critical
From KevinMD’s medical blog, guest post by Toni Brayer, M.D., shares a story where a team approach in medicine is critical for quality patient care.
Dr. Brayer writes:
“Medicine is a team sport and it is only when the team is humming and everyone is working together that patients can have good outcomes. Hospital errors, medication errors, poor communication between doctors and nurses are prevented by adherence to protocols that everyone follows. It takes laser focus, measuring outcomes and a great deal of hard work to ensure everyone is pulling together in a hospital. The fact that these bedside nurses take the time to work on error reduction and patient safety is really amazing. Have you seen how hard nurses work? My hat is off to these dedicated caregivers.”
Dr. Brayer is exactly right when she writes “medicine is a team sport.”
A hospital cannot run without a multidisciplinary team approach. Communication between doctors, nurses and other members of the team is vital for positive patient outcomes and to ensure quality patient care.
While behind the scenes, pressures mount for hospitals to control costs and a healthcare system struggles with healthcare reform, it’s paramount that doctors, nurses and other members of the healthcare team continue to work together for quality patient care.
As professionals, doctors and nurses are expected to provide the best care for their patients.
Dr. Brayer writes that that while healthcare reform is being discussed in Washington, doctors and nurses are quietly going about their business to provide the best healthcare.
While that may be true, it’s imperative that doctors and nurses don’t sit quietly while decisions are being made on healthcare. Doctors and nurses are on the front line of healthcare and they need to share their voice when it comes to healthcare reform.
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
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