Patients' views of teamwork in the emergency department offer insights about team performance

Research into efforts to engage patients in the assessment of health-care teams is limited.

To explore, through qualitative methods, patient awareness of teamwork-related behaviours observed during an emergency department (ED) visit.

Researchers used semi-structured question guides for audio-recorded interviews and analysed their verbatim transcripts.

Researchers conducted individual phone interviews with 6 teamwork subject matter experts (SMEs) and held 5 face-to-face group interviews with patients and caregivers (n = 25) about 2 weeks after discharge from the emergency department (ED).

SMEs suggested that a range of factors influence patient perspectives of teams. Many patients perceived the health-care team within the context of their expectations of an ED visit and their treatment plan. Four themes emerged: (i) patient-centred views highlight gaps in coordination and communication; (ii) team processes do concern patients; (iii) patients are critical observers of ways that team members present their team roles; (iv) patients' observations of team members relate to patients' views of team effectiveness. Analysis also indicated that patients viewed health-care team members' interactions with each other as proxy for how team members actually felt about patients.

Results from both sets of interviews (SME and patient) indicated that patient observations of teamwork could add to assessment of team processes/frameworks. Patients' understanding about teamwork organization seemed helpful and witnessed interteam communication appeared to influence patient confidence in the team.

Patients perspectives are an important part of assessment in health care and suggest potential areas for improvement through team training.