Impact of Merging Into a Comprehensive Cancer Center on Health Care Teams and Subsequent Team-Member and Patient Experiences.

PURPOSE Comprehensive health care centers are increasingly popular as they offer inclusive health care services under one roof. Often, these centers are formed by merging previously separate clinics. However, there is a lack of systematic guidance on the interprofessional, and interteam and intrateam dynamics that may develop during such an organizational change process. Using team process literature, we identify a possible model to explain how merging into a comprehensive cancer center (CCC) might influence health care teams and their subsequent outcomes, including patient experience. METHODS We used a mixed-method research design. Qualitative data were collected via semistructured interviews from 20 health care professionals employed at a recently merged CCC. During the time frame the interviews were collected, quantitative data were collected from 50 patients receiving treatment at the cancer center through anonymous paper-pencil surveys. Qualitative interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, on the basis of the input-process-output team dynamics framework. Descriptive statistics were calculated for patient experience data. Trends between data collections were identified. RESULTS On the basis of our qualitative analysis, we provide an input-process-output framework that documents positive and negative aspects of interteam and intrateam dynamics associated with the merger process. Additionally, a number of connections were found between health care professional perceptions and quality patient experiences (eg, merger impacts on interteam and patient communication). CONCLUSION Our findings and model may assist in future merging efforts. Future CCCs may use the proposed framework to better understand and visualize their postmerger progress, in particular from the aspects of interprofessional, and interteam and intrateam dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]