Abstract
Teams are an integral component of quality improvement efforts in healthcare organizations. Quality improvement teams may involve persons either from the same or different disciplines. In either case, the selection of team members may be critical to the team's success. However, there is little research to guide selection of team members for quality improvement teams. In this paper, we use tools from social network analysis (SNA) to derive principles for the design of effective clinical quality improvement teams and explore the implementation of these principles using social network data collected from the inpatient general medicine services at a large academic medical center in Chicago, USA. While the concept of multidisciplinary teams focuses on the importance of the professional background of team members, SNA emphasizes the importance of the individual and collective connections of team members, both to persons outside the team and to each other. SNA also focuses on the location of individuals and groups between other actors in the flow of information and other resources within larger organizational networks. We hypothesize that external connections may be most important when the collection or dissemination of information or influence are the greatest concerns, while the relationship of team members to each other may matter most when internal coordination, knowledge sharing, and within-group communication are most important. Our data suggest that the social networks of the attending physicians can be characterized sociometrically and that new sociometric measures such as " net degree" may be useful in identifying teams with the greatest potential for external influence.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1119-1130 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Social Science and Medicine |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 1 2010 |
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Keywords
- General internal medicine
- Hospitals
- Quality improvement
- Social network analysis
- Teams
- USA
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- History and Philosophy of Science
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Exploring the use of social network methods in designing healthcare quality improvement teams. / Meltzer, David; Chung, Jeanette; Khalili, Parham; Marlow, Elizabeth; Arora, Vineet; Schumock, Glen; Burt, Ron.
In: Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 71, No. 6, 01.09.2010, p. 1119-1130.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the use of social network methods in designing healthcare quality improvement teams
AU - Meltzer, David
AU - Chung, Jeanette
AU - Khalili, Parham
AU - Marlow, Elizabeth
AU - Arora, Vineet
AU - Schumock, Glen
AU - Burt, Ron
PY - 2010/9/1
Y1 - 2010/9/1
N2 - Teams are an integral component of quality improvement efforts in healthcare organizations. Quality improvement teams may involve persons either from the same or different disciplines. In either case, the selection of team members may be critical to the team's success. However, there is little research to guide selection of team members for quality improvement teams. In this paper, we use tools from social network analysis (SNA) to derive principles for the design of effective clinical quality improvement teams and explore the implementation of these principles using social network data collected from the inpatient general medicine services at a large academic medical center in Chicago, USA. While the concept of multidisciplinary teams focuses on the importance of the professional background of team members, SNA emphasizes the importance of the individual and collective connections of team members, both to persons outside the team and to each other. SNA also focuses on the location of individuals and groups between other actors in the flow of information and other resources within larger organizational networks. We hypothesize that external connections may be most important when the collection or dissemination of information or influence are the greatest concerns, while the relationship of team members to each other may matter most when internal coordination, knowledge sharing, and within-group communication are most important. Our data suggest that the social networks of the attending physicians can be characterized sociometrically and that new sociometric measures such as " net degree" may be useful in identifying teams with the greatest potential for external influence.
AB - Teams are an integral component of quality improvement efforts in healthcare organizations. Quality improvement teams may involve persons either from the same or different disciplines. In either case, the selection of team members may be critical to the team's success. However, there is little research to guide selection of team members for quality improvement teams. In this paper, we use tools from social network analysis (SNA) to derive principles for the design of effective clinical quality improvement teams and explore the implementation of these principles using social network data collected from the inpatient general medicine services at a large academic medical center in Chicago, USA. While the concept of multidisciplinary teams focuses on the importance of the professional background of team members, SNA emphasizes the importance of the individual and collective connections of team members, both to persons outside the team and to each other. SNA also focuses on the location of individuals and groups between other actors in the flow of information and other resources within larger organizational networks. We hypothesize that external connections may be most important when the collection or dissemination of information or influence are the greatest concerns, while the relationship of team members to each other may matter most when internal coordination, knowledge sharing, and within-group communication are most important. Our data suggest that the social networks of the attending physicians can be characterized sociometrically and that new sociometric measures such as " net degree" may be useful in identifying teams with the greatest potential for external influence.
KW - General internal medicine
KW - Hospitals
KW - Quality improvement
KW - Social network analysis
KW - Teams
KW - USA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77955579359&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77955579359&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.012
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 20674116
AN - SCOPUS:77955579359
VL - 71
SP - 1119
EP - 1130
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
SN - 0277-9536
IS - 6
ER -