Central Health Clinic is a mid-sized clinic specializing in general medicine, with a focus on radiology among other specialties. Dr. Sarah Mitchell, the Head of the Radiology Department, oversees departmental operations, ensuring accurate and timely imaging services. Challenges include communication delays between radiology and emergency departments, leading to treatment delays. Efforts to address this involve a digital platform, but resistance and low training turnout indicate potential stakeholder buy-in issues. While positive about interdisciplinary collaboration, practical barriers, especially resistance to technology, hinder seamless collaboration. Dr. Mitchell’s past interdisciplinary experiences were hindered by communication barriers and a need for structured platforms (Matlala, 2021).

Issue Identification

A communication delay between radiology and emergency departments at Central Health Clinic poses risks to patient care. Swift access to radiology reports is crucial in emergencies, necessitating an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach (Porembka et al., 2022).

Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Addressing communication challenges requires evidence-based change theories. Lewin’s Change Management Model, with phases of ‘unfreezing,’ ‘changing,’ and ‘refreezing,’ can effectively improve interdepartmental communication (Harrison et al., 2021). The PDSA model, emphasizing continual improvement, aligns with the dynamic healthcare setting, particularly suited for interdepartmental communication (Kwok et al., 2021).

Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

‘Facilitative Leadership,’ emphasizing collaboration and active participation, can address communication lag by ensuring a collaborative effort (Ho et al., 2023).

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

“Interdisciplinary Case Discussions” involve routine meetings for professionals from different departments to discuss patient cases, addressing communication barriers (Nguyen et al., 2019).

References

Harrison, R., Fischer, S., Walpola, R. L., Chauhan, A., Babalola, T., Mears, S., & Le-Dao, H. (2021). Where do models for change management, improvement, and implementation meet? A systematic review of the applications of change management models in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 13(13), 85–108. https://doi.org/10.2147/JHL.S289176

Ho, J. T., See, M. T. A., Tan, A. J. Q., Levett-Jones, T., Lau, T. C., Zhou, W., & Liaw, S. Y. (2023). A systematic review of healthcare professionals’ experiences of interprofessional collaboration in patient education. Patient Education and Counseling, 116, 107965. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107965

Kwok, M. M. K., Chiu, A., Chia, J., & Hansen, C. (2021). Reducing time to X-ray in emergency department ambulatory patients: A quality improvement project. BMJ Open Quality, 10(2), e000995. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2020-000995

Matlala, S. (2021). Educators’ perceptions and views of problem-based learning through simulation. Curationis, 44(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v44i1.2094