title: Self-managing teams: a strategy for quality improvement.
abstract: Organizations are impacted by their environments, and health care settings are no different. Individuals charged with improving a practice are often impeded by environmental barriers, including incomplete information for decision making. One strategy to empower an organization for change is to form a self-managing team. This paper discusses the self-managing team concept and uses a case study to illustrate its application in primary care. Factors contributing to team success are presented as a guide, and a reminder--there is more to an effective team than gathering people in a room.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, Unversity of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif, USA. feifer@usc.edu
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feifer
authors.forename: Kiki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nocella
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: DeArtola
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rowden
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morrison
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D000555:Ambulatory Care Information Systems; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007324:Institutional Management Teams; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007857:Leadership; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*