Preconference Tidbit #3 - What is Collaborative Care?

by Dan Jordan

This Tidbit was written by Dan Jordan.

Dan is a physical therapy assistant from Wichita, Kansas. A former police officer, Dan is confident, warm, and outgoing. His participation and leadership were instrumental for implementing collaborative care on the cardiac surgery service at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. The photo shows Dan and the cardiac team in the Cardiac Surgery ICU.

During research about collaborative care, Dan was interviewed. The interviewer asked if Dan could think of an interesting story about collaborative care. This is what Dan said...

            "Yes, there is one day that comes immediately to mind.

             We usually make collaborative rounds every morning at 8:30. On this particular day I arrived as usual for rounds, but no one else from the team showed up. The medical director couldn't be there, the pharmacist couldn't be there, the care coordinator couldn't be there, and so on. I was the only one there with the nurses, patients and families who were expecting that collaborative care would happen.

 

            I thought about it for a while, and decided just to go ahead and make collaborative rounds by myself. It worked out great. I introduced myself and invited each patient and family to introduce themselves like we always do, asked the patients about what mattered to them and about their goals and concerns, made sure everyone got a chance to talk, reviewed the plan from yesterday, ran the safety checklist, and made a new plan for the day that we wrote down together on the white board. I couldn't write orders, of course, but I pretty much knew what was going to happen because we have worked those things out together. Everyone was happy and it felt really good. 

 

            I think back on that day a lot. Nobody else was there but we did collaborative rounds! The irony is not lost on me, but it worked just fine!"

 

The interesting question of this Tidbit is, "What is collaborative care?" For Dan, collaborative care didn't require a room full of people. It was promises kept, and a pattern he knew by heart.