Table 2 Empirical Support for Identified Team-Building Interventions

“3-M” Team Training

Cooley, 1994 [39]

No

N/A

N/A

3 months

25 total staff: 11 administrative team members and 14 clinical team members (variety of disciplines including medicine, psychology, social work, physical therapy, and occupational therapy)

Rehabilitation clinic for chronic pain

N/A

CONNECT

Colón-Emeric et al., 2013 [40]

No

Topics covered included: methods for increasing cognitive diversity; developing additional problem-solving skills; developing guidelines for improved interaction patterns

Classroom instruction focused on storytelling, relationship mapping, and feedback. CONNECT includes 4 h of classroom instruction (spread over 2 weeks); completion of individual relationship maps (30 min), and structured mentoring (20 min)

3 months

Intervention: 243 total staff, including primarily nurses and nursing assistants, plus administrators and other staff (specific discipline information collected only for subset who completed surveys)

Intervention: 4 nursing homes, including both VA and non-VA settings

Control teams received FALLS training focused on fall prevention via training modules, teleconferences, and audit/feedback

(Intervention group received CONNECT plus FALLS)

Control: 254 total staff (similar disciplinary makeup as intervention group above)

Control: 4 nursing homes, including both VA and non-VA settings

CREATE

Haycock-Stuart & Houston, 2005 [41]

Yes

N/A

N/A

1 year

141 total staff: 27 nurses, 31 GP’s, 14 health visitors, 4 practice managers, 31 MSA’s, 34 other staff

Seven general practices (primary care) in one Health Board locality

N/A

ELDER

Lange et al., 2011 [42]

Yes

N/A

N/A

Multi-phase project lasted 3 years total

112 total staff: 53 nurses, 54 nursing assistants, 5 other staff

Four long-term or home care facilities in medically underserved areas

N/A

Mager et al., 2012 [36]

Yes

Built on Lange et al. [42] by adding simulation of typical clinical cases to ELDER team training

Four simulation sessions lasting an hour, each spaced about a month apart (simulation plus debriefing)

3 months

104 total staff: same population as Lange et al. [42], minus staff from one facility

Same settings as Lange et al.’s study, minus one facility; i.e.., it included two long-term care facilities and one home health care agency

N/A

Mager & Lange, 2014 [49]

Yes

N/A

N/A

6 months

97 total staff: 42 nurses, 26 nursing assistants; 29 other staff

Five long term or home care agencies in an underserved area of New England

N/A

GITT

Clark et al., 2002 [56]

No

N/A

Specific format for GITT in this study included an initial day-long workshop, followed by 1/2-day follow-up 1 year later (only 3 out of 8 teams participated in the latter as 5 had been disbanded by then)

1 year

94 total staff: 10 physicians, 38 nurses, 16 social workers, 9 administrators, 21 other staff

Eight clinical geriatric teams in various settings: four community hospital/clinics, one nursing home, two mental health agency/centers, one HMO

N/A

IMT

Nancarrow et al., 2012 [52]

Yes

N/A

N/A

6 months

253 total staff: 58 physiotherapists, 56 support workers, 46 occupational therapists, 40 nurses, 53 other staff

Eleven geriatric care teams embedded within home-based care and community care centers

N/A

Nancarrow et al., 2015 [68]

Yes

N/A

N/A

6 months

Same as Nancarrow et al. [52], minus staff from one team

Same as Nancarrow et al. [52], minus staff from one team

N/A

Rehabilitation Team Training (no formal name provided)

Stevens et al., 2007 [70]

No

N/A

N/A

6 months

29 total staff: 2 team leaders (typically but not exclusively physicians or osteopaths) participated in the training per intervention site, with the understanding that they would spread lessons learned to their teams (1 team sent just 1 leader)

Rehabilitation units emphasizing care for patients with stroke at 15 VA Medical Centers

N/A for this report

Strasser et al., 2008 [45]

No

N/A

N/A

6 months

Intervention: 227 total staff including many medical disciplines (precise discipline breakdown not reported, but teams included physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, physical therapists, and case managers/social workers)

Same as Stevens et al. [70].

Patients treated:

- Intervention: 350 stroke patients, 2337 total patients

- Control: 439 stroke patients, 2120 total patients.

Both intervention and control team leaders received team performance profiles and recommendations for how to use this information to improve their team processes.

Control: 237 total staff (similar disciplinary breakdown as intervention group)

TAP-ITP

Bain et al., 2014 [53]

No

N/A

N/A

Not reported

22 total staff: 8 physiotherapists, 5 occupational therapists, 9 other clinical staff

Four clinical teams focused on arthritis care in Canada

N/A

Team-STEPPS

Stead et al., 2009 [35]

Yes

N/A

Training delivered via train-the-trainer model

8 months

45 total staff completed assessments: precise discipline breakdown not reported

Clinical team from a mental health site in South Australia

N/A

Mahoney et al., 2012 [33]

Yes

N/A

Training delivered via train-the-trainer model

8-h train-the-trainer session, remainder of staff to be trained within 45 days

284 full and part time staff, faculty, and admin (188 full or part time clinical including physicians, psychologists, and two 2 nurses; 96 nonclinical staff)

Psychiatric inpatient unit

N/A

Spiva et al., 2014 [34]

Yes

N/A

Train-the-trainer model, with didactic lecture covering each domain along with video scenarios and debriefing of content covered

9 months

TeamSTEPPS: 18 staff

TeamSTEPPS: 17 bed neurology unit & 16-bed orthopedic unit

No training and continued with usual practice

Comparison group: 16 staff

Comparison group: 30-bed neurology unit and 22-bed orthopedic unit

Treadwell et al., 2015 [46]

Yes

N/A

Hour-long weekly sessions facilitated by case managers; 6 weeks curriculum training, 6 weeks addressing issues of the teams choice

3 months

TeamSTEPPS: 171 total staff including physicians, medical assistants, front desk staff, and others (precise discipline breakdown not reported)

Comparison group: 157 total staff

TeamSTEPPS: 25 medical homes

Comparison group: 25 medical homes

Curriculum provided by US Department of Health and Human Services: Energize Our Families

Gaston et al., 2016 [54]

Yes

N/A

2-h training session including didactic instruction along with an audiovisual slide presentation including videos, discussion questions, scenarios, and oncology-specific examples. 10 Master Trainers (MTs) attended a 1-day course, MTs provided coaching on each of the patient care units for the duration

3 months

110 total staff including 92 nurses, 12 Certified Nursing Assistants or healthcare technicians, 6 physicians

3 oncology units

N/A

Roman et al., 2016 [55, 63]

No

Long-term care version of TeamSTEPPS

Six modules presented in a co-teaching format that encouraged participation and collaboration

One 6-hour training, offered at multiple times from Sept-Dec 2015

41 staff including managers, nurses, nursing assistants, social worker, therapists, administrative staff, and others (precise discipline breakdown not reported)

Long-term care facility

N/A

Team training (no formal name provided)

Cashman et al., 2004 [44]

No

N/A

N/A

2 years

6 total staff: 1 each of physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, registered nurse, health assistant, and outreach worker/case manager

Primary care team in one New England community health center

N/A

Team training programme (no formal title provided)

Bunnell et al., 2013 [31]

Yes

N/A

N/A

2-h session (delivered once)

104 total staff: 20 physicians, 47 nurses, 4 pharmacists, and 35 support staff (trained in sets of about 20 staff each)

Outpatient breast cancer treatment center

N/A

TIPS

Bajnok et al., 2012 [47]

No

N/A

N/A

8 months

32 total staff: 5 physicians, 10 nurses, 6 physical or occupational therapists, 11 other staff

Five healthcare teams from Ontario: included four non-acute care clinics and one emergency department

N/A

TOPS

Sehgal et al., 2008 [43]

No

N/A

N/A

½ day (delivered six times to cover all partici-pants)

225 total staff: hospitalists, nurses, pharmacists, internal medicine residents, and other staff (precise numbers from each discipline not reported)

Inpatient medical unit at an academic medical center

N/A

Blegen et al., 2010 [38]

No

In addition to core TOPS intervention, patient goals were also solicited unit-wide and posted in patient rooms to facilitate communication

In addition to core TOPS intervention, educational sessions were run by Triad Unit Safety Teams (TrUSTs) to emphasize TOPS lessons

Not reported

454 total staff: 182 nurses, 102 medical residents, 53 pharmacists, 43 attending physicians, 54 other staff

Study sample included same inpatient unit as Sehgal et al. [43], plus two additional inpatient units from other medical centers

N/A

Auerbach et al., 2011 [37]

No

Same as Blegen et al. [38]

Same as Blegen et al. [38]

Same as Blegen et al. [38]

Same as Blegen et al. [38]

Same as Blegen et al. [38]

N/A

Toronto Framework

Pilon et al., 2015 [20]

No

N/A

N/A

2 years (although designed to be ongoing)

6 total staff: 2 nurses, 1 pharmacist, 1 social worker, 1 physician, 1 physician assistant

Primary care setting associated with Vanderbilt school of nursing, serving low-income/ disadvantaged patients

N/A