Healthcare Teamwork: Case Study on Patient Outcomes and Cost Reduction

This case study examines the challenges faced by healthcare managers, such as labor shortages and technological advancements, and explores how a team-based model can improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. It contrasts traditional healthcare with team-based approaches, highlighting the roles of primary physicians and the importance of patient education. The analysis delves into how roles, norms, status systems, and group cohesiveness influence team success. The case study emphasizes the efficiency, reduced costs, and improved time management associated with team-based models, while also discussing the positive impact on patient satisfaction and the potential for healthcare professionals' professional development. References from various research papers are included to support the arguments.

Running head: CASE STUDY: TEAMWORK IN HEALTH CARE
Case Study: Teamwork in Health Care
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1CASE STUDY: TEAMWORK IN HEALTH CARE
What challenges are managers of health-care organizations facing?
Healthcare sector has become one of the largest sectors in the world and earns in
trillions which is unprecedented by any singular industry. Despite its high growth and
potential, there are many challenges that the managers have to face in the industry. The very
first problem that they face are shortage of labor (Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2019). In
healthcare, most of the service providers are aging. Moreover, due to the taxing nature of the
work and the long hours of duty, the attractions of becoming a healthcare service provider is
decreasing. This has led to a shortage of labor in healthcare industry. Apart from that issues
like changes in law and regulations, changes in technology and constant upgrades and an
increasing number of people becoming old and suffering from chronic and critical disease are
also challenging for the managers in the healthcare industry.
Technology and law and regulation changes have far reaching impact. Technological
advancements bring new equipment and machineries to aid healthcare in periodic interval.
Due to the constant upgrades and new technology, the gap between two versions of similar
technology is decreasing slowly. Aging of the healthcare professionals have led to
professionals retiring or quitting their jobs (Scheffler et al., 2018). Many of the people
working in the industry leave the job for better payment. Laws change in the countries and
these changes affect the managers and the health care sectors. The distribution of labor is
another factor that affects the health care industry as in most cases labor is concentrated in the
metro cities and the country sides experience shortage acutely.
How would the way health-care organization managers manage be different in a team
based model?
In traditional healthcare system, patients would receive a complete health care
assistance from their primary physician and other tasks like prescription filling testing blood

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sugar would have been done by the attendants and the nurses. in the team based approach
however, the care is provided by a team of medical professionals and is supervised by
primary physicians. The team that provides such care takes a complete approach and there are
professionals who provide the care that the primary physician would have done (Edwards et
al., 2018). Along with that health care service provider teams would educate the patients
about self-dependence and methods to carry out easy tasks such as measuring blood sugar or
administering insulin.
This team based approach ensures that the patients receive better care and a complete
support from the limited professionals available to the institutions. The growing problem of
shortage of labor can be mitigated or managed using the team based approach. The Kaiser
Permanente is a non-profit health care service provider and they have created a complete
health care approach where all the issues, queries and problems were dealt effectively by
professional teams which led to much better time management, client satisfaction and
increased success rate in future years (Clarke et al., 2017) The workers of the institution
insisted patients to become more self-reliant and self0serving which reduces the need of labor
in health care. Experiments have shown that using the Kaiser’s model, a better standardized
health care is possible.
Explain how roles, norms, status systems and group cohesiveness might influence the
success of a team-based model?
A team based model is largely dependent on the cohesion and cooperation among the
team members. The team based approach that the modern healthcare organizations have
taken are based on the individual strengths and collaboration within the different departments
of an organization to ensure a complete and successful health care (Hall, 2018). Collaboration
among the different departments leads to establishment of roles and norms in the team. The

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roles that each individual play and the kind of responsibility that they have determines the
effectiveness of the team. Teams that have equal distribution of roles and responsibilities are
more likely to succeed as all the members feel equal parts of the team.
The norms that are set in the team decides the extent of success. If the members feel
that only one or two key people are getting all the attentions, it is likely that they will not be
interested in team jobs. Status system in the team and the cohesion that each members have
equal opportunity for exposure and professional development. Moreover, it also decides the
natural leader of the team. Though the supervisors are the official leaders, the cohesion that
the team forms decides the outcome (Schmutz, Meier & Manser, 2019). Cohesion ensures
that the team members are sharing a functional bond at the minimum so that the tasks are
carried out successfully. This can affect team work as without cohesion and cooperation,
teams in healthcare cannot run. Cohesive teams are able to share resources and knowledge
and deliver tasks in a timely manner.
What are some reasons you think a team-based model has led to improved patient
outcomes and reduced cost? (250)
In the traditional healthcare system, one primary medical practitioner would be
responsible for the patient and other nurses and health care professionals were needed only to
do the menial jobs. They also were responsible for collaborating with other specialists. In the
team based model, however, the approach that changed. The team based model ensures
greater efficiency, reduced cost and excellent time management. The team based model
forces the health care professionals to get out of their comfort zones and explore new
territories (Gafa et al., 2018). Earlier, departments in health care institutions were accustomed
to working on their won with rare connections to the other department, mainly for extremely
critical or complex cases that fall under many departments.

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Medical service providers also worked according to their specialties in earlier times.
The team based model provides a team of specialists coming from different backgrounds and
are able to diagnose diseases much easier and faster. Due to shared knowledge and different
methods of doing their jobs, the physicians could develop themselves professionally,
provided that they could see themselves as part of their teams (Rydenfält, Odenrick &
Larsson, 2017). Due to this approach, the patients are much happier as they receive better
treatment and care with limited medical professionals. This method is also cost effective as it
reduces cost of appointing new medical professionals and reduce patient service time. The
team based practice has given way to a new age approach to healthcare service where the
different organs of an institution work together and provide timely and effective healthcare to
the patients.

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References
Clarke, J. L., Bourn, S., Skoufalos, A., Beck, E. H., & Castillo, D. J. (2017). An innovative
approach to health care delivery for patients with chronic conditions. Population
health management, 20(1), 23-30.
Edwards, S., Molina, P. E., McDonough, K. H., Mercante, D. E., & Gunaldo, T. P. (2018).
The potential of interprofessional education to translate physiology curricula
effectively into future team-based healthcare. Advances in physiology
education, 42(2), 354-359.
Gafa, M., Fenech, A., Scerri, C., & Price, D. (2018). Teamwork in healthcare
organisations. Pharmacy Education, 5(2).
Haddad, L. M., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2019). Nursing shortage. In StatPearls [Internet].
StatPearls Publishing.
Hall, W., Williams, I., Smith, N., Gold, M., Coast, J., Kapiriri, L., ... & Mitton, C. (2018).
Past, present and future challenges in health care priority setting. Journal of health
organization and management.
Rydenfält, C., Odenrick, P., & Larsson, P. A. (2017). Organizing for teamwork in healthcare:
an alternative to team training?. Journal of health organization and management.
Scheffler, R. M., Campbell, J., Cometto, G., Maeda, A., Liu, J., Bruckner, T. A., ... & Evans,
T. (2018). Forecasting imbalances in the global health labor market and devising
policy responses. Human resources for health, 16(1), 5.

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Schmutz, J. B., Meier, L. L., & Manser, T. (2019). How effective is teamwork really? The
relationship between teamwork and performance in healthcare teams: a systematic
review and meta-analysis. BMJ open, 9(9), e028280.