Treatment Goals and Outcomes

The concept of goals is relevant on at least two levels within interdisciplinary geriatric team care. Teams are generally organized to achieve specific programmatic goals, and health care teams work with patients, families, and others to achieve patient-specific goals.

In order for an interdisciplinary team to function effectively, the team's purpose and goals should be clearly understood and agreed on by all members.

With increasing cost consciousness in health care, the goals of teamwork and the products of interdisciplinary collaboration are of paramount importance. Goals established, whether long-term or short-term, need to be feasible. Interdisciplinary teams function in a variety of settings (e.g., home care, inpatient) and, therefore, the team membership, types and intensity of services provided, and overall goals will vary. To help establish goals, the team could answer the question, "What do we want to achieve with this patient?"

Examples of goals include:

Improve patient function or maintain maximal patient independence
Enhance patient well-being
Increase patient or provider satisfaction
Reduce use of hospital services
Reduce health care costs

Some resources for establishing team member satisfaction are: The Team Self-Evaluation by Hultgren & Henskin, A team self-assessment tool by Krakaw; The 360 degree feedback tool; and Anson Seers’ an Assessment of How Team Members Contribute to Teamwork.

The level of the patient’s satisfaction with care can be assessed using any number of standardized patient satisfaction surveys at the beginning and again at the conclusion of the episode of care, or after a specified period of time. Disenrollment rates from Medicare managed care or the medical group can measure patient satisfaction. Tracking and examining the frequency and types of patient complaints is another way to understand patient satisfaction.