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Timely Topics of Interest

Understanding Relational Coordination Within and Across Service Lines in a Vertically Integrated VA Medical Practice Group


by Heba Naim Ali, MD, MS, PhDc ; Samuel Edwards, MD ; Martha Gerrity, MD, MPH, PhD ; Jody Hoffer Gittell, PhD
Seminar date: 4/17/2023

Description: In this Cyberseminar, Presenters will discuss: - What they learned from their pilot project, so far, about building relational coordination among VA leadership teams. - How the Relational Coordination Survey is supporting data-driven change. - What the role of leadership is in building relational coordination, and how can it be developed. Study investigators used relational coordination (RC) – communicating and relating for the purpose of task integration - as the guiding theory and the RC Survey as a tool for the executive leadership team (ELT) at VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS) to assist service line leadership teams in addressing the challenges they face. The COVID-19 pandemic increased demand for care and exacerbated staff shortages, further contributing to employee burnout and turnover, and added stress to leadership teams who strive to provide safe high quality to veterans. VAPORHCS is led by an executive leadership team (ELT) that oversees seven major patient care service lines. The ELT was aware the pandemic and staffing shortage increased stress on service line leadership teams and sought ways to assist these teams. Presenters will describe the approach used, RC survey results, facilitation needed for debriefing results with leadership teams, and how results were discussed and used by the teams. Intended Audience: Anyone who is doing quality improvement or implementation research and trying to determine how best to work with teams, or an entire medical center, will find lessons from this pilot project and the use of RC theory and survey informative.

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DOWNLOAD: PDF handout | Audio only (mp3) | transcript


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