Encouraging teamwork and innovative practices by creating proximity: A qualitative study of continuous improvements in the Quebec Cancer Network.

Abstract

e13509 Background: Quality cancer care relies on each profession keeping up with advances and best practices and spreading these across a complex multi-team system1. It requires enabling multiple providers and people living with cancer to bridge the distance between them and complement each other's contributions. The proximity framework2 provides a valuable way to understand conditions that increase the likelihood of knowledge sharing, innovation and collaboration. Methods: A qualitative study design of the Quebec Cancer Network was undertaken, with data collected from interviews with policymakers, managers, providers and users (N=22), observation of national and local level meetings (N=28) and document review. Interpretive Description using content analysis sought to identify actions that created proximity dimensions and the perceived influence these had on the development and spread of new approaches. Results: Deliberate actions taken within the network created different dimensions of proximity that impacted teamwork. Prescriptions from network leadership – including consistent promotion of the National cancer plan, patient participation in governance structures, shared quality indicators, and establishment of multidisciplinary committees at local level, created cognitive proximity: a shared mental model emphasizing patient-centred care and organizational proximity: shared standards across the network. Support for professional communities of practice created relational and institutional proximity, increasing trust and knowledge sharing. Local committees enhanced relational and cognitive proximity as providers came to appreciate and optimize each other's contribution to care. Conclusions: The combination of proximity dimensions created through communities of practice and prescriptions from the national level help develop and spread improvements that are tailored to - and take advantage of - networked team-based cancer care delivery. This reflects a balanced proximity where communities of practice pursue new knowledge and innovative practices that can be introduced in local committees to see how it fits with other contributions to solving a problem, thereby promoting recognition of interdependency within and between teams. Synergy between actions is essential to enhancing proximity. The proximity framework offers a complementary perspective to better understand opportunities for improving models of care.