A team-based care model embraced by practices, payers, hospitals, and health care providers can lead to improved outcomes in support of achieving the “triple aim” (improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita costs of health care), according to a new task force report convened by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The peer-reviewed report titled “Collaboration in Practice: Implementing Team-Based Care” has been endorsed by ACCP and almost 20 other organizations representing a wide variety of medical specialties and professions.

“Optimally implemented, the team-based approach provides integrated care over the course of a specific experience, as well as across a patient’s lifespan and within a regionalized care system,” the report states. Specifically, the report suggests that a team-based model of care strives to meet patient needs and preferences by actively engaging patients as full participants in their care while encouraging all health care providers to function to the full extent of their education, certification, and experience. This includes engaging the patient in shared decision-making so that decisions throughout a patient’s life are based on the best available medical evidence as well as the patient’s values, goals, and preferences.

Moreover, the report states, team-based care across specialties and professions, coupled with traditional or nontraditional evidence-based implementation tools such as telehealth and virtual teams, has a clear role in improving access to health care and mitigating health disparities. “Evidence and experience have long shown that, across disciplines, collaboration in care leads to not just improved patient outcomes, but also enhanced patient satisfaction,” said ACOG Past President John C. Jennings, M.D. “By recommending that all members of the care team be included in team-based care, and by emphasizing its value through the life of a patient, we are laying the groundwork for team-based care to become the standard across medical disciplines.”

ACCP President-Elect Marcia Buck, Pharm.D., FCCP, FPPAG, commented:

The invitation for ACCP to participate on the task force reflects not only the integral role of clinical pharmacists in team-based care, but also the growing recognition of ACCP as a leader within the profession. The work done by ACCP members in the areas of interprofessional education, practice, and research provided significant supporting documentation for the ACOG report. We value the opportunity to have participated in drafting the new report, as well as the chance to develop stronger ties with ACOG and the other members of the task force. As a part of our Strategic Plan, ACCP aims to position clinical pharmacists through association with other professional organizations such as these.

C. Edwin Webb, Pharm.D., MPH, ACCP associate executive director, also stated:

This collaboration with ACOG reflects the College’s major focus on interprofessional engagement with primary care medical organizations. The opportunity for Dr. Buck and me to directly contribute to the work and results of the task force and then to achieve its endorsement by ACCP has been a very rewarding experience.

The task force report lays out six guiding principles for implementing team-based care that act as a blueprint to ensure seamless integration:

• Patients and their families are central to and actively engaged as members of the health care team.
• The team has a shared vision.
• Role clarity is essential to optimal team building and team functioning.
• All team members are accountable for their own practice and to the team.
• Effective communication is key to quality teams.
• Team leadership is situational and dynamic.

In addition, the report recognizes that practices and health care providers face challenges when transitioning to a team-based model of care; however, it offers a series of opportunities wherein practices, health care providers, payers, hospitals, policy-makers, and professional health care associations can effect change.

The interprofessional Task Force on Collaborative Practice was convened in summer 2014 as part of Jennings’s presidential initiative. In addition to ACCP, the task force included representatives from ACOG, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Academy of Physician Assistants, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, American College of Nurse-Midwives, Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care, National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health, and National Partnership for Women & Families.