[Role-specific targets and teamwork in the operating room].

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Surgical Operations
• Team Dynamics

Background:

• Operating room (OR) teams face inherent goal discrepancies between the primary surgical objective and individual team member priorities.
• These differences stem from subjective preferences and organizational structures, particularly in professional bureaucracies where experts identify more with their profession than the institution.
• Multidisciplinary OR teams require alignment of diverse goals for successful collaboration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To document and analyze role-specific targets and motivations within multidisciplinary operating room teams.
• To identify potential sources of conflict arising from differing professional priorities in the OR setting.

Main Methods:

• A case study was conducted in a university hospital's 40 operating rooms.
• Data was collected using expert interviews, utility analysis, and card placement for communicative validation.
• Qualitative content analysis was performed using a four-pillar success model (medical quality, economy, client satisfaction, employee satisfaction) and an inductive coding scheme, interviewing 10% of staff across professional groups.

Main Results:

• Surgeons prioritized economy and efficiency (37%) and medical quality (34%).
• Anesthesiologists prioritized employee satisfaction (38%) and economy/efficiency (31%).
• OR nurses (61%) and nurse anesthetists (57%) highly prioritized employee satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• Significant differences in the perceived importance of various goals exist among OR professional groups, leading to potential goal conflicts.
• The transient nature of ad hoc OR teams hinders team building and adaptation, exacerbating conflict potential.
• Disparities in valuing employee satisfaction are critical, as it correlates with productivity and patient satisfaction, highlighting the need for open communication to optimize OR management.