Healthcare management strategies: Interdisciplinary team factors

Purpose of review: Interdisciplinary team factors are significant contributors to clinical performance and associated patient outcomes. Quality of care and patient safety initiatives identify human factors associated with team performance as a prime improvement area for clinical patient care. Recent findings: The majority of references to interdisciplinary teams in obstetrics and gynecology in the literature recommends the use of multidisciplinary approaches when managing complex medical cases. The reviewed literature suggests that interdisciplinary team development is important for achieving optimally efficient and effective performance; however, few reports provide specific recommendations for how to optimally achieve these objectives in the process of providing interdisciplinary care to patients. The absence of these recommendations presents a significant challenge for those tasked with improving team performance in the workplace. The prescribed team development programs cited in the review are principally built around communication strategies and simulation-based training mechanisms. Few reports provide descriptions of optimal team-based competencies in the various contexts of obstetric and gynecology teams. However, team-based evaluation strategies and empirical data documenting the transfer of team training to applied clinical care are increasing in number and quality. Summary: Our findings suggest that research toward determining team factors that promote optimal performance in applied clinical practice requires definition of specific competencies for the variable teams serving obstetrics and gynecology.