Interdisciplinary shared decision-making: taking shared governance to the next level

Healthcare organizations have been challenged to make high-quality, safe, and reliable care more affordable, portable, transparent, and efficient. Skillful leadership and contributions from all members of the organization are needed to accomplish these changes. This article describes how one organization, driven by a vision for finding better ways, embarked on a journey to design, implement, and refine their model for interdisciplinary shared decision-making (SDM). The model was based on the principles of accountability, equity, ownership, and partnership, and designed to support staff members in right decision-making at the point of service. The success of SDM depends on leaders who believe in the process and demonstrate their commitment by holding front-line managers accountable for allocating resources and coaching staff. Point-of-service staff, in turn, must accept ownership and accountability for the content of their work and be willing to develop their SDM knowledge, comfort, and skills over time. Preliminary outcomes indicate that these new processes have had a positive effect in helping the organization find better ways to innovate and improve patient care.