Assessing teamwork: a reliable five-question survey.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Teamwork Dynamics
• Primary Care Research

Background:

• Current teamwork assessment tools in primary care are resource-intensive, limiting frequent administration.
• Effective teamwork is crucial for optimal primary care delivery and patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a brief teamwork-assessment instrument for primary care.
• To create a reliable and efficient tool for frequent evaluation of team function.

Main Methods:

• Administered 29 teamwork questions from the Practice Environment Checklist (PEC) to 56 clinical team members.
• Conducted a validation study with 89 clinic staff, assessing reliability, internal consistency, and completion time.

Main Results:

• A five-item survey demonstrated acceptable reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.89 initially, 0.82 in validation).
• The short-form questionnaire takes under 3 minutes to complete.
• All five items showed significant item-total correlations, indicating good construct validity.

Conclusions:

• The short-form PEC is a reliable and efficient tool for frequent teamwork assessment in primary care.
• This brief instrument can aid in monitoring and improving team function within clinical settings.