Impact on Patient Safety Culture by the Intervention of Multidisciplinary Medical Teams

Abstract

Objective: To provide comprehensive patient-centered care, we need multidisciplinary teams to face challenges of advanced and complex care. The Taichung Veterans General Hospital has had a ward-based multidisciplinary team system in each ward for 10 years. This study aimed to investigate whether better team performance results in a more positive response in patient safety culture (PSC).

Design/setting: From 2014 to 2017, there were 21 ward-based multidisciplinary teams. We organized an evaluation panel to assess the performance of the teams. Those teams were divided into 3 groups: high, medium, and low according to their annual performance scores. The Taichung Veterans General Hospital used annual Safety Attitude Questionnaire-based surveys concerning patient safety issues. We used the generalized estimating equation to analyze the dataset over 4 years. All analyses were carried out using SAS Version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).

Results: Taking the trend effects from 2014 to 2017 into account, we found that teamwork climate, safety climate, and perception of management were significantly better in the high and medium groups of the ward-based multidisciplinary teams. There was no significant difference in the dimensions of job satisfaction, stress recognition, and working conditions, which suggests that all staff had the same degree of stress or work loading.

Conclusions: Our ward-based multidisciplinary team system had a positive effect on PSC, which demonstrates the following: when team performance is better, patient safety climate is also better. We should keep the ward-based multidisciplinary team system, improve its performance, and maximize positive attitudes about PSC among our staff.