Health Care Teams - 3 Strategies to Implement to Work Better Together

Health care systems are experiencing significant changes and stress that require innovative skilled teams. In fact, integrated teams, accountable care organizations and medical home models are being formed and piloted to provide quality patient care at a reduced cost. These health care delivery models will need teams that can work together. This article will discuss 3 strategies that teams can implement to work better together.

Strategy 1: Identify the Rules of Engagement (ROE)

Teams need to set up the standards and expectations that they will follow when they work together. These standards and expectations are the rules of engagement. All team members should participate in formulating the ROE. When individuals participate in the formulation process, buy-in and accountability are maximized. Examples of ROE statements include:

Respect for others
Not interrupting others when they are speaking
No name calling
Coming prepared for meetings
Accomplishing assignments and task on time
Meeting deadlines

Have team members agree to and sign the ROE.

Strategy 2: Strengthen the Relationships of Team Members

Strong team member relationships promote effective working relationships. It is essential that health care teams develop working relationships that promote patient safety and quality patient care. Create activities that promote positive interpersonal interactions. Such activities include: workshops, lunch and dinner, celebrations, concerts and strategy sessions. Survey the team members to determine which activities they enjoy and would like to participate in as a group. Provide a diversity of activities.

Do you remember a time when you were a member of a team and felt a strong relationship with the team members? How were the relationships developed and sustained? What activities and behaviors promoted the positive interactions? How can you use these experiences to strengthen the interactions with your present team?

Strategy 3: Create a Compelling Vision with Goals that Stretch

Teams that work well together have a compelling purpose and vision to keep their eye on. In health care the vision of providing quality patient care is a compelling vision. Individuals enter the health care field to help others. The majority of health care professionals are motivated to help others who are ill and provide the best compassionate patient care.

Set up goals that stretch the team. The goals should be specific, realistic and measurable. Teams that work together towards a goal develop a sense of purpose and mission. The teams develop a sense of commitment and accomplishment that bring team members together. The team experiences a sense of cohesion that can be sustained.

And to help you get started in developing your leadership skills and create powerful healthcare teams, you are invited to claim your complimentary special report "The Top Ten Costly Mistakes Physician Team Leaders Should Avoid" when you visit http://physicianteamstrategies.com.

From Mary Ann Orzech, MD -- The Physician Team Strategist

Living Together Without Marriage Improves Men's Mental Health

A study in England of thousands of women and men found that people who went through the good and bad times with the original mate and stayed together were much happier mentally.

It was also found that men who played the field got over the relationships when they ended much quicker then women did.

Women who stay single who once had a great love that did not work out tended to be mentally stable.

The fact that women who live with a man without benefit of marriage are not as happy as the men is because there is no financial protection for them when the relationship ends. Security is everything to women and marriage represents stability and although the relationship can end they will have some rights. This explains why women who are married are more mentally stable then if they simply lived together.

Women have children and need a stable lifestyle and a strong desire to protect themselves and their kids. So marriage is very important financially and also there is the question of respect that everyone needs. If a women has her own career and here own money these thing may be less important.

From a man's point of view and if he's over 25 security is not very important. But most men don't want to be squeezed into a relationship by the women he loves. He want's it to be his idea. The trick for a woman is to make him believe it is His Idea.

Being married has always been associated with greater mental and physical health. Bachelors don't live, as long, at least that's what the myth indicates. In the past studies have shown married men live a longer life with greater psychological happiness.

There was an English study for 10 years ending in the millennium of 10,000 adults. Both men and women were interviewed and asked a series of questions about being depressed or anxious.

Long-lasting relationships that have weathered the storm provided excellent mental health.

People that had failed relationships and were now alone had combinations of grief and anger and were often depressed. Both men and women had poor mental health after this experience. But for those who could move on to new relationships, much of the damage was somewhat reversed. Although women seemed to have a harder time of letting go than men did.

Women's mental health progressively deteriorated with the more break-ups they experienced.

For men that had several different experiences it seemed the opposite was true. Men who had more then one relationship and moved on seemed to be in excellent mental health. Those men that had only one relationship and not moved on were not as mentally stable.

Women who never married but lived with their mate were in great mental health unlike men in the same situation.

Jeffrey Broobin is a free-lance writer on family and finance issues; his main goal is to help people during their complicated period of life. Website: http://www.legalhelpmate.com Email: jeffreyb@legalhelpmate.com