Creating a Culture of Teamwork Through Implementation of TeamSTEPPS

The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 1999 publication of To Err is Human raised awareness of medical errors in the United States. This report estimated that preventable medical errors are associated with upwards of 98,000 deaths annually. Communication breakdowns among healthcare teams are noted to be a leading cause of errors. Since the release of this IOM report numerous organizations, including The Joint Commission (TJC), Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the National Quality Forum (NQF), and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) have documented the significance of teamwork and communication on improving patient safety. In 2006, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DOD) released Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) as the gold standard for team training in health care. TeamSTEPPS is an evidenced-based teamwork system geared to optimize patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among healthcare professionals. The purpose of this process improvement project was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of TeamSTEPPS training and tools in promoting a culture of teamwork in the University of Maryland’s Adult Emergency Department (AED).