Yale New Haven Hospital Ambulatory Operations recently launched daily practice huddles in ambulatory practices across the enterprise. The huddles are designed to enhance communication among practice team members and help them proactively handle the flow of the day’s patient schedule.
Each huddle brings the practice’s operational and clinical areas together for a brief assessment and communication. This enables the practice team to identify and be better prepared to solve problems in real time, allowing for improved coordination in patient care.
The huddle project is the culmination of operational and clinician workgroups at the enterprise level that began earlier this year. Proof of concept sites began performing daily huddles in May and provided valuable feedback. All sites went live June 24.
Huddles are designed to be held in-person each day and documented on a standardized huddle board. Staff and clinicians unable to attend can review the huddle documentation using a Microsoft Teams tool. This tool, which mirrors the huddle board, includes the information discussed during the huddle.
Practice leads attended training sessions to prepare their sites for daily huddles. Training topics included implementing tools such as the huddle board and virtual huddle data form, along with supplementary Microsoft Teams basic training. Training sessions were also conducted for staff and clinicians to communicate the huddle process.
