Discussion: DHA 711 Evolution & Components

The care team, the second level of the health care system, consists of the individual physician and a group of care providers, including health professionals, patients’ family members, and others, whose collective efforts result in the delivery of care to a patient or population of patients. The care team is the basic building block of a “clinical microsystem,” defined as “the smallest replicable unit within an organization [or across multiple organizations] that is replicable in the sense that it contains within itself the necessary human, financial, and technological resources to do its work” (Quinn, 1992).

In addition to the care team, a clinical microsystem includes a defined patient population; an information environment that supports the work of professional and family caregivers and patients; and support staff, equipment, and facilities (Nelson et al., 1998). Ideally, the role of the microsystem is to “standardize care where possible, based on best current evidence; to stratify patients based on medical need and provide the best evidence-based care within each stratum; and to customize care to meet individual needs for patients with complex health problems” (Ferlie and Shortell, 2001). Most health and medical services today, however, are not delivered by groups or teams.

The role and needs of individual physicians have undergone changes parallel to those of individual patients. The exponential increase in medical knowledge, the proliferation of medical specialties, and the rising burden of providing chronic care have radically undercut the autonomy of individual physicians and required that they learn to work as part of care teams, either in a single institution/organization or across institutional settings. The slow adaptation of individual clinicians to team-based health care has been influenced by several factors, including a lack of formal training in teamwork techniques, a persistent culture of professional autonomy in medicine, and the absence of tools, infrastructure, and incentives to facilitate the change.