Multidisciplinary Teams and Quality of Care: The Experience of Breast Units During COVID-19

Abstract

In the last two years, health care organizations worldwide have faced many challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the area of breast cancer, multidisciplinary teams, involved in the management of breast cancer patients, suffered disruptions due to changes in work organization and in membership composition. Moreover, the entire health care workforce—including Brest Unit team leaders—has been impacted by a high degree of stress. To understand how these challenges affected the perceived quality of care received by BU patients, the present study tested several research hypotheses using a sample of 366 patients within 68 breast units. The level of stress experienced by the Brest Unit team leaders positively affected the quality of care, while changes in team composition and social distancing among team members negatively affected the perceived quality of care. Given these results, healthcare managers should develop new training paths useful to help professionals to adapt to new ways of working. Moreover, managers should ensure teams to develop repository tools to share knowledge and practices, to avoid the loss of these contents in the chance of team members changes. Finally, from a policy-making perspective a higher interest for mental health of healthcare workers should be paid.