Andre Vyt

In the context of a quality assurance policy, a regional network initiated a project to measure the quality of interprofessional consultation meetings. A questionnaire was evaluated on content validity by 48 stakeholders: healthcare professionals, representatives from healthcare organizations, interprofessional consultation meeting coordinators, and representatives from patient organizations. A revision resulted in two subscales (each consisting of 16 items) for assessing process and outcome aspects of interprofessional consultation meetings. After validating the instrument, it was used in a hands-on test by individuals and in a pilot series of team-based self-assessments. Responses were used to analyse reliability and consistency of the subscales and the items, and to reveal first indications of relative weaknesses and strengths in interprofessional consultation meetings. Results point out that the subscales, now part of the Interprofessional Practice and Education Quality Scales (IPEQS), can be useful for self-assessment of the quality of such meetings in primary and community healthcare, but maybe also in other areas of interprofessional collaboration.

The article focuses on the need for and the characteristics and positive consequences of interdisciplinary teamwork in health care. Interprofessional collaboration is an important element in total quality management. Factors that determine the success of team work are described, such as a management that promotes openness and an administrative organization that promotes interdisciplinary consultation. Other factors have to do with leadership, shared goals and values, meeting management and planning skills, communication, and also the (degree of) knowledge and the (quality of) perception of competences of other health care workers. The shared care plan is stressed as an important tool. In this, the joint planning of goals for intervention and care is essential. Health care workers with different professional knowledge and background have to harmonize their intervention plan according to the competences and goal settings of the other team members. The core of effective interprofessional teamwork is the presence of interprofessional competences such as these. A brief description of the components and performance criteria of the competence of interprofessional collaboration is given. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.