Evaluating the huddle as a method of improving staff communication and process efficiency on a psychiatric inpatient ward (6 April 2021)

Summary

Variation in healthcare processes is widespread in mental health care and can lead to inefficient processes and unnecessarily long inpatient stays. This study in The British Journal of Healthcare Management aimed to identify sources of variation and introduce a huddle intervention to increase system efficiency on a psychiatric inpatient ward in London.

The study found that huddles are a useful way to improve staff communication and increase ward efficiency without taking up a significant amount of clinicians' time.