Quality healthcare services can be costly. One critical way to deal with these costs is through collaboration between healthcare workers, where the healthcare workers work together to provide quality services and ensuring patients’ positive outcomes (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020). Notably, the collaboration of the healthcare workforce helps reduce medical errors that can be costly to those receiving the care. Most hospitals suffer from communication gaps due to a lack of interconnectedness among healthcare professionals. For instance, a physician may fail to share his diagnosis with a specialist, leading to a possible misdiagnosis that may lead to further health complications, hence more costs. Collaboration allows the health workers to work together and avoid such errors due to miscommunication (Morely & Cashell, 2017). It helps them have a mutual perspective towards the patient’s positive health outcome.
Apart from reducing medical errors, collaboration among healthcare workers ensures patients’ best experience. It creates an environment that allows each worker to input his/her expertise in caring for the patient (Morely Cashell, 2017). For example, consider an example of a person who is involved in a car accident. He will need to be attended by specialist surgeons for his injuries, after which he will be taken to the ward where nurses will care for him until he recuperates. Therapists will also be seeing him; help him cope with the psychological trauma effects from the accident. In this case, the collaboration will ensure that this person heals well and the chances of experiencing further complications will be minimal thanks to the care he received.
One way to increase effective collaboration is through training, where health workers are trained in teamwork skills. The training mostly focuses on skills such as decision-making, situational awareness, and coping with pressure and stress (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020). These skills are important in minimizing errors during collaborations.
References
Buljac-Samardzic, M., Doekhie, D. K. & van Wijngaarden, D. H. J. (2020). Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: a systematic review of the past. Human Resources for Health, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.118/s12960-019-0411-3
Morley, L & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in health care. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, 48; 207-216. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2017.02.071
