Dresden Teamwork Concept: For Medical High Risk Organizations

Besides its core competencies in excellent patient care, the university hospital in Dresden, Germany focuses on team and quality management. In our understanding, team management is one key success factor for hospitals in the future. Excellent nationally and internationally recognised projects and practice proven concepts will be presented by specialists in their fields. After discussing the strategic background and advantages of team oriented management from the hospital CEOs viewpoint, possibilities of aligning individual employee performance with strategic goals under the peculiarities of university hospitals are presented. The concept of shared mental models is then closely discussed on the background of cutting edge results in this field in a guest article by Piet van den Bossche (Dept. of Educational development and Educational Research, Maastricht University, The Netherlands). Fitting just into the latter empirical background, team concepts in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services are described, which rely on shared mental models of all team members. To achieve good Crew Resource Management the Dresden Six Step Approach of CRM improves team performance by introducing psychological know how into simulator based teaching, focusing on shared mental models and team effectiveness. The next chain link of patient safety is risk management representing a vital part of quality management in high risk medical organisations. In this regard, the design and implementation of a local Critical Incident Reporting System (CIRS) in Dresden is illustrated. Consequently the results of our CIRS are openly discussed as well as the changes in daily practice derived from its reports. The next step on the way to business excellence is the utilisation of closed quality management circuits, referring to the classical Deming cycle (plan- do- check- act). In this regard, we describe the results of the first Six Sigma team optimisation project in a German hospital in collaboration with the Chair of Market oriented Corporate Management and Marketing of the University of Dresden. Responsibility for society is further taken by setting up a quality certified trans-regional stroke management network. Using virtual patient gateways under the leadership of the UHD quality in patient care evolves from the local level of one hospital to the entire eastern Saxon region. Most fascinating and challenging, however, is the psychology and team management of large teams and resources under time pressure exemplified in mass casualty incidents and natural disasters directly affecting a level 3 trauma centre as illustrated in the both final chapters. This book is aimed at managers and team leaders, practitioners, and team members in diverse organisations as well as management consultants. This diverse target group illustrates the basic approach of team management. Only the strategy oriented inter-professional co-operation of management and staff within shared mental models across the organisation enables sustained success of all contributors by increasing patient safety and satisfaction.