Employing interprofessional health teams to meet meso-level challenges: a short report

This paper shares a report of how one New Zealand District Health Board (DHB) employed interprofessional health project teams to deliver system-wide health improvements and solve its immediate demand for additional hospital beds. CM Health provides health and disability services to approximately 512,000 people in its district. With increasing patient demand and no opportunity to increase capacity, CM Health needed a fast solution for its bed shortage. The Health Board set a goal to reduce the pressure on Middlemore Hospital by giving back to the community 20,000 well and healthy days over two years. The interprofessional health project teams identified best practices through 11 key workstreams. Over the two year period, an estimated 23,060 bed days (the difference between actual bed day usage and the predicted growth) were saved. This case demonstrates how interprofessional health teams can help Health Boards solve complex challenges and achieve sustainable change across their organizations.