Interprofessional collaboration involves healthcare professionals from various fields and potentially people from other spheres, such as technology. It usually leads to improved safety, and decreased a number of errors, and also benefits the staff (Morley & Cashell, 2017). The positive results are associated with elevated responsibility, role distribution, collective decision-making, and communication of the results to patients (Morley & Cashell, 2017). Working in a team makes professionals more goal-oriented, and their actions are coordinated and discussed, which explains the benefits. A recent trend is the nursing shortage due to burnout and job dissatisfaction (Grand Canyon University, 2018). Interprofessional collaboration can alleviate the issue by removing some of the burdens from the nursing staff and having a mental care specialist who will oversee individual and collective well-being. It may increase work retention among nurses and make them feel empowered rather than discouraged. Overall, interprofessional collaboration positively impacts the team, and that later translated into patient outcomes.
One of the innovative healthcare delivery models is accountable care organization. While it is a collaboration between various health professionals who are responsible for providing high-quality care to certain population groups, another important point is a connection with IT specialists (Dorr, Cohen, & Adler-Milstein, 2018). Health IT helps notify care providers about the patient’s status and general trends in diseases affecting the target group, which allows the team/unit to be prepared and concentrate its efforts in a particular field (Dorr et al., 2018). The involved professionals will analyze the data and determine the best course of action for a patient of the entire population, which may reduce the number of visits to healthcare organizations (Dorr et al., 2018). Thus, a collaboration involving health and IT specialists can lead to improved patient outcomes due to thorough data analysis and preventive measures.
References
Dorr, D. A., Cohen, D. J., & Adler-Milstein, J. (2018). Data-driven diffusion of innovations: Successes and challenges in 3 large-scale innovative delivery models. Health Affairs, 37(2), 257–265. Web.
Grand Canyon University (Ed.). (2018). Trends in healthcare: A nursing perspective. Web.
Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in health care. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, 48(2), 207–216. Web.