Team coordination in an Intensive Care Unit

Researchers have the need for improved coordination and continuity of care in health-care environments, but little research has been undertaken to better understand how coordination occurs and how it might be improved. Using Klein’s (2001) phases of coordination this exploratory study provides a profile of the contributions of role-based communications to team coordination in an Intensive Care Unit. All communication events for five patients for five consecutive days were logged and analysed using a hierarchical loglinear analysis. Nurses to nurse communications were found to focus mainly on the planning phase of coordination of short-term time horizons. Doctor to doctor communication events were characterized as formal and involved the planning and direction phases of team coordination and informal nurse to doctor communication events focused on planning and team assessment phases of coordination. Further analysis is required to determine how these contributions interact and what the vulnerabilities might be.