Leveraging Interprofessional Team-Based Care Toward Case Management Excellence: Part 2, Team Development,...

: Health care teams are constructive and efficient ways to approach, assess, coordinate, plan, and facilitate the client-centric and population-based care. Some iteration of team is in place across most practice settings, comprising different professionals and specialists, from multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary to the most recent interprofessional model. This 2-part article series sets the tone for how interprofessional team-based care (IPTBC) empowers the care process. Part 1 focused on the history and fundamental concepts of interprofessional models, with outcomes to promote the value proposition for IPTBC implementation.This Part 2 article focuses on the identification of seminal group development and team processes. An original model, the Interprofessional Team Activation Cycle (ITAC), is presented, as well as defined tactics for professional case managers to promote successful implementation of IPTBC in their organizations.

This article: PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTING(S):: Applicable to all health and behavioral health settings where case management is practiced.

Shifts in reimbursement models, organizational cultures, and client populations have yielded emphasis on the swift IPTBC implementation. In addition, the recognition of team development as a fluid process endemic to achieve client-centric outcomes and organizational return on investment mandates a keen eye to the phases of a team implementation, especially those that are interprofessional in scope.

With case management so closely linked to the fiscal imperatives of organizations, engagement in IPTBC is a necessity for every practice setting yet not always implemented properly or successfully. Poor team collaboration contributes to unsuccessful outcomes for clients, increased costs, and concerning quality and risk management issues for the organization. Models focused on group development serve to support how health and behavioral health organizations consider and implement interprofessional teams.