Primary care multidisciplinary teams in practice

Restructuring primary care into teams to improve quality and efficiency is one recommendation for strengthening the US healthcare system. A qualitative study of healthcare professionals at six primary care practices used focus group discussions and surveys. Practices used a variety of team designs. Most practices described their ideal team design as including a social worker to meet the needs of patients with complex medical issues. Primary care team designs vary across practices, shaped in part by situations or policies outside of the practices' control. The common desire to add social workers to care teams reflects practices' struggles to meet the complex demands of patients and external agencies. Government or organizational policies should avoid one-size-fits-all approaches to multidisciplinary care teams, and let primary care practices adapt to their specific contextual circumstances.