Teams communicating through STEPPS.

The article describes a study evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of a Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) program at an Australian mental health facility. The study involved five health care sites in South Australia that implemented TeamSTEPPS using a train-the-trainer model over an 8-month intervention period starting January 2008 up to September 2008. The results showed that the implementation has had a substantial impact on patient safety structure, teamwork and communication.