Working Together for the Patient

Working Together for the Patient

Lynn Smith

Kaplan University

The medical field is ever broadening, and the care of the patient must follow. Medical professionals must work in conjuction with the patient to map out the path of treatment for the patient. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, collaboration means “to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor ( (Collaboration, 2011). It is imperative for medical professionals to collaborate on the treatment of patients. Without collaboration, the patient’s health could be endangered because test results are not always interpreted or charted the same. If each department has their own records for the patients, then imperative information could be overlooked, and the correct proper diagnosis could be missed. One patient will encounter an average of fifty different medical professionals in a hospital stay of only four days (Joint, 2005a). This situation leaves a lot of room for mistakes. The Joint Commission from 1995 to 2004, states “communication failure as the leading root cause for medication errors, delays in treatment, and wrong-site surgery, as well as the second most frequently cited root cause for operative and postoperative events and fatal falls” (Joint, 2005b).

Teamwork seems like the most likely answer for this problem. Frustration on part of the patient is a very real problem. They might see their General Practioner, Physical Therapist, the Nutritionist, a person from the lab to draw blood, and then the nurse to give them their medication. By the end of the day, after talking to all these different professionals the patient is completely confused, especially the elderly. There has to be a way to develop a team for patient information with just certain people overseeing the organization of the patients care. There has been tremendous advancements in the medical digital records. The tide has changed, and the days of paper charts and folders is phasing out, and...