Organizational culture, team climate and diabetes care in small office-based practices.
Improving teamwork among providers of different disciplines is a vitally important step in developing a culture of safety. Despite the development of measurement tools and intervention strategies for addressing inpatient teamwork, comparatively little research has addressed issues of team and organizational culture in the outpatient setting. This study sought to evaluate the relationship between teamwork (measured by the Team Climate Inventory) and organizational culture and chronic disease outcomes in ambulatory clinics. Neither teamwork nor organizational culture at the clinic level was significantly correlated with process or outcome measures, but the authors caution that current measurement methods are not optimal for assessing safety culture in small office practices. A prior trial of crew resource management in an outpatient clinic did result in improved diabetes care.