Patient care conference: a coordinated, collaborative effort.
The flow chart, guidelines, and document describe the mechanism for patient care conferences. Because the need, process, and documentation of patient care conferences have been clarified, care conferences are now more consistent, efficient, and effective. Documentation streamlined the process of setting up care conferences by recording the following information: who was notified, who would attend, specific issues to be discussed, conference scheduling summary of plans and decisions made. Task force satisfaction was high because of a short timeline, clear problem definition, clear goals, team sponsorship, and a good end product. Use of continuous quality improvement techniques added to the success of this project, because there was a methodology for starting with a variable, unclear process and ending with a creative, efficient process. All members of the healthcare team and patients and families were satisfied, because the patient care conference was available to discuss specific issues and reach consensus on decisions about the patient's treatment plan at critical points during the patient's hospital course.