Team Collaboration

“Collaboration is “a process through which parties who see different aspects of a problem can constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their own limited visions of what is possible.” (Gray, 1989) In this paper, I will provide instances, an advantage and a disadvantage, as to how collaboration has succeeded and failed. The article written by (Ross, 2004) at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, in Poughkeepsie, New York, examines how three groups, nursing, pharmacy and an IT department put their expertise together to solve a dilemma at hand, which was implementing a Barcode Medication Administration System. Because of the high percentage of medication errors that have occurred in the hospital setting, the patients’ safety was put in jeopardy.

In 2005, VBMC formed a team to figure out how to raise the quality of care of their patients. To begin the process, they started with the Information Technology group, which is the most crucial piece of the project. “Barcode technology automates the “five rights” check by prompting the nurse to scan their name badge, patient identification wristband to access the patient’s medication profile, and medication to verify that the drug, patient, dose, time and route all match.” (Ross, 2004) Pharmacy, which deals with entering orders from physicians and nursing, who deal with the patient’s medical records, had to be included on the team because are involved in the medication process as well. Collaboration from these groups formed the concept of the “three legged stool” because each group is dependent on the other to maintain balance.

Moving forward, VBMC decided to break the project into three phases: unfreezing (project origination), moving (workflow and re-design) and refreezing (implementation/acceptance/integration). In the unfreezing phase, the team has to figure out what vendors they will use by visiting other hospitals that already have the barcode system. They need to research various...