Managing Multidisciplinary Teams in Healthcare: 5 Best Practices
Optimal management of your healthcare facility’s multidisciplinary team requires a distinct leadership approach that promotes interprofessional collaboration and trust. It’s crucial that leaders help staff navigate diverse perspectives, hospital hierarchy, communication barriers, and professional boundaries.
In hospitals and other patient care facilities, the benefits of a well-functioning team include an increased capacity to deliver complex care, thanks to coordination among experts. Healthcare leaders who foster teamwork across disciplines also see higher staff satisfaction scores, fewer healthcare errors, and better patient outcomes.
We’ll go into depth about how multidisciplinary collaboration works, and how you can best support it as a manager. We’ll also provide five strategies for promoting this type of teamwork at your facility.
What Is a Multidisciplinary Team in Healthcare?
Holistic, patient-centered care requires a diversified and well-rounded staff. Multidisciplinary healthcare teams (MDTs) can work together to build and execute care plans for patients. By providing comprehensive and coordinated care, the MDT can ensure treatment goals are met and the best possible patient outcomes are achieved.
Many different employees work together to contribute to patient care, including:
- Nurses
- Doctors
- Respiratory therapists
- Medical assistants
- Dieticians
- Physical therapists
- Psychologists
Why Is Teamwork Important?
Collaboration is important because each team member contributes valuable skills and expertise. For example, a doctor may lead the team in establishing a medical diagnosis and writing care orders. A nurse may contribute a nursing diagnosis, and execute the doctor’s orders by providing medications. The medical assistant would support these efforts by addressing patient hygiene and emotional support needs.
The care plans may be individual to the discipline, such as a surgeon’s plan to extract a patient’s tumor and a nurse’s plan (for the same patient) to prevent a pressure ulcer. With this model of healthcare teamwork, each discipline brings their training, perspective, and objectives to the table, ideally centered around the patient’s wishes.
Multidisciplinary Team vs. Interdisciplinary Team
The terminology for various types of healthcare teams is flexible, but the industry is moving toward a distinction between multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams.
On a multidisciplinary team, roles and responsibilities are enacted within the boundaries of each profession, allowing for many care plans that unfold in a parallel manner. The exchange of information typically occurs in a relatively formal way, such as at rounds or through electronic health record (EHR) documentation.
Interdisciplinary teams typically work together in a highly integrated manner to create and execute a single care plan. Treatment decisions are influenced by multiple team members and information is exchanged often (formally and informally) throughout the process so that modifications can be made as needed.
The Importance of a Multidisciplinary Approach
Collaboration and coordination is essential in healthcare. Multidisciplinary team members allow for diverse perspectives and a broader knowledge base than a single clinical discipline could provide. Teams also allow for a “divide and conquer” technique that helps ensure all tasks are completed by the most appropriate care provider. This shared trust allows each member of the team to focus on their assigned responsibilities, knowing that others on the team are doing the same.
There are clear benefits of using an MDT to provide care to your patients, which are highlighted in the table below.
| Efficient use of resources | Dividing tasks according to specialty reduces redundancy and saves healthcare facilities money. With large, diversified medical teams, more patients are able to receive specialized care. |
| Better care coordination | Patient harm is minimized when staff collaborate to provide care. Roles and responsibilities are divided among staff members, helping patients and staff to see the big picture. Teams work together to provide oversight for treatment plans and care techniques, minimizing healthcare error. |
| Reduced staff burnout | Anyone who’s been a part of an incredible team knows the exhilaration that comes after a group accomplishment. Staff members who work in high-performing teams have higher job satisfaction, better work-life balance, and reduced levels of burnout. |
| Decreased patient length of stay | Studies show that effective teamwork and communication can reduce a patient’s hospital stay. Teamwork helps improve efficiency, allowing providers to see more patients in a shorter amount of time. |
These are just a few of the many perks associated with strong interprofessional teamwork in the healthcare setting. Facilities can build a culture of safety and improve many areas of care provision by fostering meaningful collaboration in the workplace.
What Are 5 Best Practices for Optimizing Teamwork?
Understanding the importance of teamwork is the first step in providing coordinated care. To help your facility encourage more effective teamwork, we’ve outlined five evidence-based best practices for developing camaraderie and synergy in your workplace.
1. Establish Clear Roles and Responsibilities
Healthcare administrators should establish the duties of each member of the multidisciplinary healthcare team and educate their employees on the boundaries of their scope of practice. Understanding staff member functions can help teams plan tasks and organize their schedules.
It’s also important to know the chain of command for the unit and hospital levels. Having a team lead is helpful during patient decompensation or another emergency.
2. Create Shared Workspaces
Facilities can help build teamwork and collaboration by moving away from smaller, discipline-based workrooms and toward larger, shared spaces where teams can problem solve, explore solutions, and develop plans of care.
Nurses in some facilities document patient data in a central station while other disciplines like doctors and dieticians are placed in small offices throughout the hospital. To foster collaboration, all providers should chart and discuss medical orders together, preferably somewhere in the department or unit.
3. Build Communication Platforms to Promote Teamwork
One-on-one messaging platforms limit teamwork and group problem solving. Building a HIPAA-compliant group chat function into communication platforms and electronic medical records helps teams stay informed and updated on patient needs.
4. Debrief After Challenging Situations
After stressful or upsetting situations, it’s important to support your staff by allowing time and space to debrief. It’s equally important to discourage a culture of blame after emergency events. Allowing staff to discuss openly, but respectfully, helps relieve anxiety and improve patient outcomes in future critical events.
5. Encourage Team-Building Events Outside of Work
Hosting fun group activities outside of the hospital can help develop good rapport between individuals of different disciplines. These activities can include:
- Hiking or group exercise classes on days off.
- Going out to dinner after a long shift.
- Attending birthday or graduation parties for members of staff.
Teams whose members know each other on a personal level often have stronger trust and communication. When employees feel happy and comfortable at work, they have higher job satisfaction.
Get Additional Healthcare Leadership Insights
Facilitating strong multidisciplinary teamwork can contribute to a positive workplace and better patient outcomes. Want more leadership tips? Our research-backed healthcare resources and guides are designed to give you the strategies you need, no matter what challenge you’re facing.