An increasing volume of literature reports that deficiencies in collaboration and communication among healthcare professionals have a negative impact on the provision of healthcare and on patient outcomes .The consequences reach far beyond stress and frustration levels experienced by professionals; they can result in adverse events such as medication errors and failure to rescue. According to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), a voluntary organization that monitors critical incidents and sentinel events in healthcare settings in the USA, communication failures among team members are a contributory factor in 60% of sentinel events. Barriers to good interprofessional relationships described in the literature include time pressure, lack of explicit descriptions or of understanding of each otherââ¬â¢s roles and tasks, poor organizational support, absence of clear leadership, different traditions and professional values, different aims and priorities, and vertical management structures with discriminatory power structures.
Communication Among Healthcare Professionals: a Central Factor in Patient Outcome
Paraskevi Theofilou
Last date updated on September, 2024