The Impact of Interdisciplinary Training on Improving the Efficiency of Healthcare Services.
Abstract
Background: Efficient healthcare delivery requires effective collaboration among diverse healthcare professionals. Traditional discipline-specific training may limit teamwork, communication, and operational efficiency. Interdisciplinary training has emerged as a strategy to enhance collaborative competencies, improve workflow efficiency, and reduce errors in clinical practice. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of an interdisciplinary training program on healthcare service efficiency.
Methods: A quantitative, quasi-experimental design was employed involving 120 healthcare professionals from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health fields. Participants underwent a structured interdisciplinary training program consisting of workshops, simulation exercises, and case-based discussions over two weeks. Data were collected pre- and post-training, including teamwork assessment scores, task completion time, error rates, self-reported collaboration skills, and overall efficiency. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze changes following the intervention.
Results: Post-training assessments demonstrated significant improvements in all measured outcomes. The proportion of participants rated as having excellent teamwork increased from 10% to 37.5%, while poor scores decreased from 19.1% to 4.1%. Average task completion time decreased by 25.5%, from 48.6 to 36.2 minutes. Error-free performance increased from 16.7% to 50%, and major errors decreased from 41.7% to 12.5%. Self-reported collaboration skills and overall efficiency also showed marked improvement, with highly efficient participants increasing from 20.8% to 58.3%.
Conclusion: Interdisciplinary training significantly enhanced teamwork, collaboration, efficiency, and patient safety among healthcare professionals. Structured cross-disciplinary programs offer an effective approach to optimize healthcare service delivery, improve operational performance, and foster a collaborative culture within healthcare systems.
