Teamwork in health care: opportunities for gains in quality, productivity, and competitive advantage. What works, what doesn't, and why.
Wholesale political, economic, and social change is pressuring health-care organizations to reinvent themselves as they enter a new arena of managed competition. Survival is at stake. Will belt-tightening efforts, combined with structural changes and strategic alliances, achieve the necessary improvements in efficiency and help to secure an adequate patient base? It seems reasonable to expect that health-care institutions can realize the major gains in quality, productivity, efficiency, and competitive edge that organizations in the manufacturing and service industries have enjoyed for the past several years. It seems like a logical next step for health-care organizations to deploy proven methods--such as work redesign, team-based structures, and empowered workforces--that have helped to restore competitiveness to many industrial and service firms. This article describes how to organize teams at all levels and accelerate their development to achieve important organizational objectives--such as improving quality, productivity, and efficiency--while increasing employee satisfaction. Pioneering workplace innovations are reviewed to demonstrate how high-involvement teams integrating strategic planning, research, and health-care delivery processes are not only possible but highly desirable. Enhanced quality, improved productivity, greater efficiency, and employee satisfaction all translate to an undeniable competitive advantage.
Montebello
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AR
Psychological Associates, Inc.
D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007324:Institutional Management Teams / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007587:Job Description; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011590:Psychology, Industrial; D014481:United States