What is a multidisciplinary team?
A multidisciplinary team consists of professionals from diverse disciplines and a wide range of services and sectors to work together to improve patients’ health and wellbeing.
It concentrates on all aspects of a patient’s health including medical, physical, psychological, social, and emotional.
Often the most common MDTS found within primary care consist of typical members including doctors, nurses, therapists both occupational and physios, as well as social workers and other specialists. However, the members of an MDT can differ depending on your goals and expertise needed.
More recently housing associations, care providers, and commissioners, as well as housing officers have been known to be a part of an MDT based in primary care to integrate health and housing. This is due to both primary care and social care professionals acknowledging how the wider determinants of health can impact an individual’s mental health and wellbeing.
Importance of multidisciplinary teams in primary care
Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are crucial in primary care because they bring together diverse expertise and perspectives, improving the quality and effectiveness of patient care. Below are just some of the benefits and impacts multidisciplinary teams in primary care provide:
1. A more holistic care approach
With MDTs bringing together various stakeholders with different expertise, they enable a better and more holistic approach to patient care.
Here by integrating different perspectives, MDTs can address the complex needs that involve medical, social, and psychological factors.
2. Better comprehensive and coordinated care
MDTs ensure that care is comprehensive and well-coordinated. This is particularly important for managing chronic conditions, where ongoing support from various specialists is necessary.
Equally, though stakeholders sharing their knowledge and working collaboratively, coordination among team members prevents fragmented care and promotes stronger continuity.
3. Improved Health Outcomes
Research also shows that multidisciplinary teams improve health outcomes by reducing hospital admissions, improving patient satisfaction, and enhancing the overall quality of care.
The collective expertise from stakeholders within an MDT leads to more accurate diagnoses and effective treatment plans, reducing pressure on the NHS and workloads, helping patients be more proactive in managing both their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
4. Enhances decision-making
The impact of a well-organised and led MDT is that it facilitates more enhanced decision-making by bringing together diverse viewpoints and expertise.
This collaborative approach helps develop well-rounded care plans, care treatments, and better-integrated care to manage more complex care needs.
5. Deliver better person-centred care
Having a strong MDT allows a better-positioned approach to focus on the individual needs of patients addressing both their clinical and non-clinical needs, without overworking healthcare professionals and GPs.
Overall multidisciplinary teams are essential in primary care for delivering high-quality, person-centred care that is comprehensive, coordinated, and effective.
Advantages and disadvantages of multidisciplinary teams
While multidisciplinary teams offer significant advantages in providing comprehensive, coordinated care, they also come with challenges related to communication, coordination, and resource allocation.
The table below explains both the advantages and disadvantages of multidisciplinary teams in more detail:
|
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|
Comprehensive Care – Holistic approach addressing all aspects of health |
Communication Challenges – Different communication styles can lead to misunderstandings, conflict, or delays |
|
Improved Patient Outcomes – More effective and personalised care plans |
Coordination Difficulties – Scheduling and coordinating care can be time-consuming |
|
Enhanced Communication and Collaboration – Reduces errors, improves and improves continuity of care |
Resource and Time-Intensive – Requires significant time and resources for effective functioning |
|
Efficient Use of Resources – Optimises resource use to reduce duplication |
Role Confusion – overlapping responsibilities can lead to conflicts |
|
Better support for Complex Cases – Better management of comorbidities and complex cases |
Power Dynamics – Differences in hierarchy can create imbalances in team dynamics |
|
Professional Development – Promotes continuous learning and skill development |
Patient Involvement – Involving patients across multiple disciplines can have different levels of engagement making it complex and overwhelming |
What are the consequences of Multidisciplinary teams not working well together?
As discussed in the table above the disadvantages of multidisciplinary teams can cause many consequences.
When multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) do not work well together, the consequences can significantly impact both patient care and the healthcare system. Poor collaboration and communication among team members can lead to inconsistent treatment, delays in care, and an increased risk of medical errors, all of which compromise patient safety.
Patients may receive mixed messages, causing confusion, anxiety, and a loss of trust in their healthcare providers, which can result in lower engagement.
Inefficiencies also arise when MDTs fail to coordinate effectively, leading to the duplication of efforts, wasted resources, and increased healthcare costs. The lack of collaboration can also foster workplace tension, creating conflicts among team members, and contributing to stress and burnout. This hostile work environment not only affects the wellbeing of healthcare professionals but also reduces their job satisfaction, limiting opportunities for professional development and learning.
Poor teamwork in MDTs therefore can lead to poor decision-making. This, in turn, limits the continuity of care leading to fragmented communication, and poorer patient outcomes including readmissions, and higher healthcare costs.
Multidisciplinary examples – What are they?
There are many examples of successful multidisciplinary teams in primary care. The table below demonstrates how they work, who is involved, and the purpose of the team.
|
|
Members |
Purpose |
|
Primary Care Team |
GP, Nurse Practitioner, Pharmacist, Social Worker, dietitian |
To manage patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or asthma. The team collaborates to develop and implement comprehensive care plans, provide patient education, adjust medications, and address lifestyle factors. With the aim to improve patient outcomes and quality of life. |
|
Pediatric Primary Care Team |
Pediatrician, nurse, child psychologist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, and social worker |
To address the health and developmental needs of children. Here the team works together to provide routine care and address developmental delays or behavioural issues to support families with resources and interventions to promote overall wellbeing. |
|
Integrated Care Team |
Psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, psychiatric nurse, social worker, case manager, substance abuse counselor, Link Worker |
To provide integrated mental health care within a primary care setting. The team addresses mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Here the team can coordinate with primary care providers to ensure a seamless approach to both mental and physical health needs using Link Workers to refer individuals to interventions and support in the wider community to prevent social isolation. |
|
Community Mental Health Team |
Community psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, mental health counselor, social worker, peer support specialist, Link Worker |
To support individuals with severe mental illness within the community. The team provides therapy, medication management, social support, and resources to help individuals manage their conditions and integrate themselves more into the community. Here the team focuses on reducing and preventing hospital admissions, and improving overall wellbeing. |
Here these examples demonstrate multiple different types of MDTs that can be created depending on the aim and purpose of what patient health is intended to be improved.
These examples show that both clinical and non-clinical needs can be addressed to offer a better comprehensive and holistic approach to care. For example, both the integrated care team and community mental health team demonstrate how Social Prescribing Link Workers can be embedded within an MDT to help improve patients’ mental health and wellbeing.
Here Link Workers can use their connections within the community to co-produce social prescriptions that matter to the individual by addressing the wider social determinants of health patients can be suffering from.
The remainder of the article will explain the role of social prescribing in MDTs and how best to overcome the challenges multidisciplinary teams can face.
The importance of multidisciplinary teams and social prescribing – What is the link?
Multidisciplinary teams and social prescribing are both crucial in providing comprehensive, person-centered care.
Here MDTs and social prescribing complement each other by integrating medical and non-medical support. MDTs can use population health management approaches to identify patients who would benefit from social prescribing and work with social prescribers to address their broader social and emotional needs.
As social prescribing is an innovative approach that often involves connecting patients with community-based resources and services that can be managed by MDTs, this integrated approach helps ensure that patients receive a holistic support system that improves their overall health and wellbeing.
MDTs and social prescribing are interconnected therefore as they both ensure a comprehensive approach to care. While some members of the MDT will concentrate on medical care, Link Workers concentrate on addressing social factors that impact health. This collaboration therefore enhances overall patient support and improves outcomes by addressing all clinical and non-clinical factors that can impact an individual.
How to build a multidisciplinary team?
Building an effective multidisciplinary team involves several key steps to ensure successful collaboration and comprehensive care. The main steps include:
- Define objectives and goals of the intended MDT
- Select the team members required
- Establish roles and responsibilities
- Promote effective communication
- Foster collaboration and teamwork
- Develop shared protocols and processes
- Provide training and support
- Monitor and evaluate performance
- Address conflicts and challenges
- Celebrate successes and achievements
Here by following these steps, you can build a well-functioning multidisciplinary team that collaborates with every team member effectively to maintain a positive team environment and achieve the intended goals.
At Access Elemental Social Prescribing, we want to make this process even easier by providing social prescribing software that can both manage social prescribing referrals to provide safe and assured pathways, as well as offer a platform to effectively manage population health across your primary care settings to identify patients across all population groups that could benefit from the service.
Here our digital social prescribing platform can further enhance the effectiveness of MDTs by providing tools for better communication, coordination, and care management.
Managing referrals couldn’t be easier with our social prescribing software, as not only can healthcare professionals make the referral in a matter of a few clicks, but it also enables everyone within the MDT to monitor the social prescribing journey within their clinical system to avoid duplication of information, reduce time spent on admin, to spend more time creating social prescriptions that matter to the individual.
Here Marketplace offers a fully branded and configurable front-end website to tie into your wider social prescribing projects within your MDT to address the social issues of your community, which in turn help reduce GP reliance and attendance.
We know at Access Elemental, that a social prescribing programme is only as good as the services that are on offer. With Marketplace we work with customers to build a directory of services that is relevant to your programme and objectives. As a result, we continue to maintain it to reduce admin strains on social prescribing teams and MDTs. We also offer both self-referral and self-serve functionalities so patients can benefit from our built directory of services for you straight away.
As a result, you can better track registrations and attendance for every patient collating evidence for social prescribing which in turn helps increase MDT engagement as well as secure future funding.
Investing in digital social prescribing therefore helps build stronger integrated and mental health multidisciplinary teams by making it easier for Link Workers to educate other members of the MDT on the benefits of social prescribing as well as the benefits it provides patients, GPs, and the wider community.
Summarising the benefits of multidisciplinary teams
This article has explained that multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are essential in primary care for delivering holistic, patient-centered care by integrating diverse expertise to address the comprehensive needs of individuals.
While MDTs offer significant benefits, including improved care coordination, enhanced patient outcomes, and better decision-making, they also face challenges such as communication difficulties, coordination issues, and resource demands.
To overcome these challenges and build stronger, more effective MDTs, investing in digital social prescribing software plays a crucial role.
By streamlining referral processes, enhancing communication, and facilitating the management of social determinants of health, this article has explained how our social prescribing software helps to address the disadvantages associated with MDTs. Social prescribing not only complements the clinical care provided by MDTs but also integrates community-based support, ensuring a more holistic approach to patient wellbeing.
At Access Elemental, we understand the importance of integrating clinical and social support to improve patient outcomes, reduce GP attendance and hospital admissions, to optimise healthcare costs.
The Marketplace module of our social prescribing platform offers a comprehensive solution for managing referrals within a real-time directory of services so your patients never attend an out-of-date service again. By integrating with your primary care setting, patients can feel confident with the continuity and familiarity on site reassuring them they will get the support they need.
To find out more about how our digital social prescribing software can enhance your MDTs and transform patient care, contact us today.
Explore how our Marketplace can elevate your multidisciplinary teams, enhancing integration and effectiveness to drive better patient outcomes by requesting a demo today.
Why not take the first step towards transforming your MDTs by working with us to put your patients at the centre of your care, focusing on what truly matters to them today?
