With the pro football season kicking off, much of the country is on edge to learn who will come out as this year’s champion. Though you’ll rarely see tens of thousands of people cheering a business on, the same primary ingredient that signals success in sports is key in healthcare: Teamwork. If you can build a strong team at your health center, you can guarantee success in your future.
The Role of Teamwork in Community Healthcare
On the surface, community health centers appear to be the underdog in the nation’s healthcare system. In reality, however, community health centers provide care for over 28 million people who otherwise would have little or no access to adequate medical services.
The quality of these services depends on how well your facility’s employees work as a team. A breakdown in communication and cohesion will quickly be noticed by your clients. When your patients’ trust starts to evaporate, you will lose both their patronage and any funding linked to patient satisfaction.
How Can You Improve Teamwork at Your Medical Facility?
Focus on the Front Line
Your team’s flaws and strengths are most visible among those who interact directly with your clients. Nurses, doctors, and others who are involved in direct patient interaction form your front line, and the quality of their services directly impacts every other level of your organization. If you focus on streamlining their workflow and improving their overall experience, their success will be shared by the whole facility.
Hold Multidisciplinary Meetings
When departments fail to work well together, it is usually as a result of a misunderstanding between specialties. Healthcare is a highly specialized field, and it’s rare that members of one department fully understand the nuances of their neighboring disciplines. Rather than holding staff meetings exclusively with individual departments, therefore, strive to coordinate events so that members of different departments can meet together and hear each other’s concerns and viewpoints. These meetings won’t replace departmental meetings entirely, but they will help foster better communication between specialties.
Listen to Feedback
Listening to your employees’ input will help you craft more efficient policies and processes, but the long-term benefits go much deeper than that. When you listen to and implement suggestions from your staff, you are a sending the message that every voice matters. You’re making it clear that every team member is valuable, but that true success will only come through mutual respect and cooperation.
Build Your Healthcare Team
Strong teamwork is the driving force behind success in medicine, and UHC Solutions is eager to help you reach your goals. With 20 years of experience placing talented leaders in health centers across the nation, we are confident we can help you create the executive team of your dreams. To learn how to get started, contact our top healthcare recruiters today for a free consultation.
