New Collaborative Promotes Patient-centered Care, Accountability

The new principles emphasize the need for collaboration, a focus on patient-centered care, accountability, and information sharing. They also recognize systemic issues in hospital care, such as gaps in healthcare education and the pressing need for hospital culture to better promote teamwork.

The final principle states that "the HCC recognizes that today's hospital cultures do not foster true teams of healthcare professionals" and it calls on all stakeholders—such as payers, providers, administrators, patients—to work together "to create a new hospital culture that nurtures and rewards high performing teams."

Using its members and common principles as the foundation for its work, the HCC is beginning to engage in new activities designed to improve care for hospitalized patients, including:

• Identifying and promoting best practices in multidisciplinary teamwork
• Promoting continued and expanded collaboration among the HCC organizations to develop and implement strategies for teamwork among health professionals
• Developing and promoting education programs, specifically for interdisciplinary teams

"This has been a landmark even for us and for the other organizations involved," Holman said. We're looking forward to pushing these principles into both application as well as the broadening of the inclusion in this group. I think there's a lot more to follow."