Team-Based Healthcare: Benefits & Challenges - Essay Sample

Introduction

Alongside improved dialogue among the staff members, team-based healthcare is a collaborative, integrated and multi-disciplinary healthcare practice that is aimed at the efficient and effective delivery of healthcare services to the patients (O'Neill & Cowman, 2008). Team-based Healthcare is cost effective and saves on time. Although some authors argue that team-based Healthcare may attract negative attitudes from the patients and result to duties and responsibilities overlap of the healthcare professionals, this healthcare practice should be encouraged because it is intended for the high value of medical performance and the improved accessibility to healthcare by the patients.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Case Description

The case presents a situation in a hospital in Cuba, where several patients were being admitted and diagnosed with hypertension. The hypertension cases were increasingly being registered in the hospital, and the health care unit decided to adopt the team-based approach for the management of hypertension within the hospital and in the surrounding healthcare branches. The main aim was to manage hypertension within the region comprehensively. Healthcare delivery team comprised of various healthcare professionals were drawn from the hospital and in the neighboring community health care stations.

The Healthcare Delivery Team

The selected team comprised of a Doctor, Hypertension specialist, Nurse, pharmacist, counselor, nutritionist, social worker, community health workers, and the clerical staff. Each member of the team had a role to play in the management of hypertension. They were to collaborate and holistically address hypertension cases in health care facilities. Financial resources were also pulled together for this noble course.

Role of the Doctor

The duty of the doctor included diagnosis of patients, regular evaluations for various secondary cause sand the damages caused to the organs. However, the hypertension specialist handled the more complex cases of hypertension that could not be done by the nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals.

Role of the Nurse

On the other hand, the nurses were involved in taking notes on the history of the patients. This was done before the patients proceeded to the Doctors and the hypertension specialists. They were also engaged in the counseling of the patient's and their lifestyle training. The nurses also carried out adjustments of the medications that were administered to the patients. Furthermore, they were involved in patient follow up and referrals to other health care facilities that offered the required services.

The Role of Pharmacist

Like the role of the nurses, the pharmacists here were also involved in the patient's counseling and the identification of the barriers to effective hypertension management. They carried out a lifestyle survey, assessment, and counseling of the patients. The pharmacists also did the adjustment and the refiling of the medications for the patients.

Role of the Counsellors

In hypertension management, the primary purpose of the counselor was lifestyle counseling for the patients as well as the adjustment and design of the appointment schedules. The patients who had been diagnosed booked appointments with the Counsellors for counseling sessions. They also designed and disseminated appointment reminders with particular patients.

Role of the Social Worker

The social workers were involved in conducting lifestyle counseling, and the patient follow up. They also assisted in the design of the appointment schedule and the appointment reminders for the patients and the specialists.

Role of the Community Health Worker

The community health worker (CHW) was involved in the measurement of the patients' blood pressure and conducted the lifestyle assessment and counseling of the patients. They have also engaged in the patients follow up and referrals.

The Role of the Clerical Staff

The primary role of the clerical staff was date entry, design, and dissemination of the appointment schedules and the appointment reminders. The clerk also performed any other clerical duty as assigned by the Team leader.

Impacts of Team-Based Approach in Healthcare

The team-based approach in healthcare has a positive effect through enhanced satisfaction and the safety of the patients (O'Neill & Cowman, 2008). The teamwork also facilitates effective and efficient service delivery to the patients through the reduced shortages of health care professionals (Medves et al., 2010). Various professional collaborates thus have the capacity to deal with healthcare concerns within the healthcare facility holistically. There is also improved cost and time savings in the service delivery to the patients (Mitchell & Golden, 2012).

The effectiveness of this approach has been witnessed in countries like Canada and Dubai, among others (Medves et al., 2010). The team-based approach also enables the healthcare professionals to have a detailed account of the patient's medical history thus become much equipped to deal with the various healthcare concerns of the patients. In this way, the healthcare concerns of the patients are well taken care of (O'Neill & Cowman, 2008). An excellent healthcare team is that which have consistent and continued communication with each other and optimize the patients' care (Medves et al., 2010).

Poor communication among health care professionals and caregivers has often been the main reason why patients seek legal redress (Mitchell & Golden, 2012). In this light, the team-based approach to healthcare encourages the shared responsibility among the healthcare professionals, thus leading to an improvement in communication and the service delivery (Medves et al., 2010). Although medical errors never miss, team-based approach leads to reduced medical errors. However, having a team without purpose result to the unnecessary wastage in the healthcare provision. `

Team-Based Approach Advantages

The advantages of the team-based approach to health care are diverse. For instance, the collaboration of the healthcare professionals results in the improved satisfaction of the patients because they do not feel neglected by the healthcare team (Mitchell & Golden, 2012). A well-coordinated team also result in a few mistakes on the patient, thus resulting in improvement in the outcomes (Mitchell & Golden, 2012).

Furthermore, there is efficiency and better utilization of resources when a team-based approach is used in healthcare service delivery (Medves et al., 2010). Financial resources are also saved when this approach is adopted because a series of healthcare activities are conducted concurrently, resulting in little or no financial wastage. Problems such as misdiagnosis of the patients are also combated through the collaboration between the team members.

Financial Resource Analysis of the Team-Based Approach

There is improved financial efficiency in the healthcare provision system when the team-based approach is adopted in the health care services (Mitchell & Golden, 2012). For instance, the financial resources that would have otherwise been used in the employment of more healthcare staff can then be channeled in the improvement of the healthcare facilities and the provision of quality health care for the patients (Medves et al., 2010).

Conclusion

Adoption of the team-based approach is vital to the success of any health care facility. The collaboration between the health-care professionals results in improved service delivery as well as cost savings in the health facilities. A collaborative approach between Nurses, doctors, pharmacists and other experts in various sectors of the health service result to a tremendous increase in the patients' acceptance because of the improved efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. Again, there is efficiency in the timing of the service delivery because there are shorter wait times for the patients.

References

Medves, J., Godfrey, C., Turner, C., Paterson, M., Harrison, M., MacKenzie, L., & Durando, P. (2010). Systematic review of practice guideline dissemination and implementation strategies for healthcare teams and teambased practice. International Journal of EvidenceBased Healthcare, 8(2), 79-89.URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1609.2010.00166.x

Mitchell, P., & Golden, R. (2012). Core principles & values of effective team-based health care. National Academy of Sciences.

O'Neill, M., & Cowman, S. (2008). Partners in care: investigating community nurses' understanding of an interdisciplinary teambased approach to primary care. Journal of clinical nursing, 17(22), 3004-3011.URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2008.02068.x