[Communication and teamwork in a modern hospital]

The problems facing a modern hospital, which mirror the crisis confronting medicine as a whole, are reviewed. In the search for solutions to these difficulties it is necessary to envisage the hospital in a larger context and examine the role it should play in society. And a comprehensive approach that takes into account all the different elements involved in the work of a hospital-administration, medical care, teaching, research-is fundamental. All teamwork presupposes certain dimensional factors such as organization, dynamics, and productivity. And each member of the health team must identify with the work of the group as a whole, providing for a degree of "realization of individual potential" which ultimately comes together with the primary goal-namely to work toward the health of the patient. The various forms of communication in the hospital, both between individual departments and between the members of each team that has a part to play, are also reviewed.