Abstract
Several organizational factors facilitate or hinder information transfer in palliative care teams. According to past research, organizational factors that reduce information transfer include the inconsistent use of shared electronic patient files, frequent changes of healthcare staff, a lack of opportunities for personal exchange, and a lack of evaluation of collaborative processes. Insufficient information sharing between professionals can negatively impact patient safety, whereas studies have shown that some organizational factors improve collaboration between professionals and thus contribute to improved patient outcomes. The main purpose of this study is thus to investigate whether, and if so how, organizational factors contribute to successful information exchange in palliative care teams in Switzerland, while also accounting for the different care contexts of primary and specialized palliative care. A nationwide survey was aimed at medical professionals working in palliative care. In total, 379 participants (mean age = 49.8 years, SD = 10.3) were included in this study. Two main outcome variables were examined: healthcare providers’ satisfaction with information transfer in their team and their overall satisfaction with communication in their team. Hypotheses were tested by employing structural equation modeling. Findings revealed that the strongest predictors for effective information transfer in palliative care teams were sufficient opportunities for face-to-face meetings and supervision alongside feedback tools to improve collaborative practices and the application of guidelines and standards for collaboration. Face-to-face meetings were an even greater contributor to information transfer in specialized settings, whereas sharing the same work-based values with colleagues was considered more important in primary settings. Results from this study contribute to the existing literature elucidating how information transfer is facilitated in the field of palliative care. If proposed measures are implemented, this could possibly improve patient outcomes in palliative care. Furthermore, the findings can be useful for healthcare organizations and associations to make more efficient resource allocation decisions with the aim to optimize information transfer within the workforce.
Highlights
The topic of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare has received considerable attention in recent decades and has gained importance in the interdisciplinary field of palliative care (PC)
This study investigates whether the importance of certain organizational variables for information transfer is moderated by the context of two different PC-settings, namely primary palliative care (PPC) and specialized palliative care (SPC), which are distinguished by the patients’ current condition [1]
Aligned with a priori expectations, the majority of the organizational variables were significantly correlated to information exchange, as well as to providers’ satisfaction with communication
Summary
The topic of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare has received considerable attention in recent decades and has gained importance in the interdisciplinary field of palliative care (PC). Bainbridge et al (2010) proposed a comprehensive input-process-output (I-P-O) model to evaluate PC services This framework postulates that collaboration in PC teams is comprised of three main elements: systemic, process of care, and patient outcome-related determinants [8]. In PC a large knowledge gap exists regarding what organizational and care-process related factors promote an efficient collaboration in terms of improved information transfer. Bainbridge et al (2010) argues that in the case of palliative care, satisfactory patient outcomes can only be achieved via efficient information transfer and satisfactory team communication. With the rise of new concepts for interprofessional communication in healthcare, an evaluation of key mechanisms that foster collaboration on an intraorganizational level in PC is needed more than ever before [10]
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