Chair File: Creating Expert Health Care Teams

It’s no surprise that when health care teams communicate well and work together effectively, it leads to safer, higher quality care and better patient outcomes.

AHA is working to help hospitals and health systems transform their teams of experts into an expert team. AHA Team Training educates, convenes and shapes hospitals and other organizations to provide better team-based care using TeamSTEPPS—Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety. TeamSTEPPS is an evidence-based set of tools for optimizing patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork among health care professionals.

This work is part of the AHA’s Center for Health Innovation. Through the Center, AHA Team Training offers free monthly webinars on topics such as improving teamwork training in medical education and understanding and sustaining a just culture and non-punitive environment.

AHA just released a TeamSTEPPS pocket guide, which you can download for free. This quick reference outlines key principles of TeamSTEPPS as well as specific tools, strategies, barriers and outcomes. 

Has teamwork and communication made a significant impact at your organization? A request for proposals for the annual AHA Team Training National Conference next June in San Antonio is available at AHA.org/teamtraining-conference. This conference draws hundreds of health care professionals each year. Find out more about the conference and check out all of the resources available at AHA.org/teamtraining.