Abstract
Introduction Whitehills Health and Community Care Centre (WHCCC) is a 31-bed community hospital. Weekly multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings occur to co-ordinate care and discharge planning. The format prior to this quality improvement project was meetings twice per week using Microsoft Teams. Errors were noted such as incorrect discharge dates and missed referrals. Aims: improving information transfer during MDT meetings, reducing errors in communication, reducing meeting duration and improving staff satisfaction. Methods Data was collected in the format of surveys distributed to members of the MDT and meeting duration . There were three PDSA cycles: Introduction of chairperson and proforma Chairperson, Proforma and screensharing on Microsoft Teams Reduction of MDT meetings to once weekly Results The initial survey found that 43% (n = 3/7) of staff found meetings to be effective. One hundred percent noted that information had been missed or not acted upon (n = 7). This improved with each cycle; cycle 3 data showed that 100% felt the meetings were effective and only 14% felt information was missed (n=1/7). Given the improvements, cycle 3 trialed a once weekly meeting. Average weekly time spent in meetings fell from 213 minutes to 130 minutes (39% reduction). 100% (n=7) said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the once weekly MDT. Conclusions Creating a standardised structure in the form of chaired meetings and MDT proforma was found to improve effectiveness of the meeting and reduce errors. These changes allowed a more efficient and safe once-weekly meeting. This led to reduction in time away from clinical areas for MDT members. These changes have been adopted and maintained by the WHCCC team. Areas of future development may include: The impact of blended or face to face meetings and further reduction in meeting times.