Abstract
Good team approach improves not only the quality of the clinical treatment, but also the medical safety management at the clinic. Fluid and accurate communication is particularly important. Verbal exchanges naturally make up the major part of day-to-day communication, but verbal communication alone is prone to errors and slipping one’s memory over time, hence the importance of documentation in written format. Written documents help us share and retain information and discussions at the meetings and sometimes make a draft for a manual where/when necessary. The resultant manual may resolve certain disagreements or miscommunication among staff members due to different backgrounds and experiences and in effect decrease critical mistakes. This will certainly be reflected in the quality of clinical care provided at the clinic. This article is to present a variety of meeting methodologies and tips (e.g. reporting, brainstorming, and discussions) and effective usage of IT devices and to explicate a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) cycle for organic and continuous improvement of communication and teamwork. Through ramification of intra-clinic communication we have come to learn the importance of securing a system and time to share information and day-to-day clinical experience and also the necessity to set an appropriate short-, mid-, and long-term goals for implementation of sound team medical care.
