Hoitotiimin

Hoitotiimi is a Finnish term for a multidisciplinary group of health and social care professionals who collaboratively plan, implement, and evaluate a patient’s care. The concept emphasizes continuity, coordination, and patient-centered decision-making across hospital, primary care, and home care settings.

A hoitotiimi typically includes nurses, physicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, pharmacists, dietitians, and other professionals as needed. The exact composition depends on the setting and the patient’s needs. The patient and family are regarded as central team members, with information shared openly to support informed choices.

Core processes include joint assessment of patient needs, setting shared goals, creating a care plan, coordinating interventions, and ongoing evaluation. Teams may hold regular rounds or case conferences and use electronic health records and standardized tools to document plans and progress. Handover and discharge planning are integrated parts of the workflow to ensure continuity of care.

Benefits of hoitotiimi work include improved continuity of care, better communication, higher patient safety, and more efficient use of resources. Challenges can include unclear roles, interprofessional communication barriers, staffing shortages, and time pressures; effective leadership and clear processes are needed to mitigate these issues.

In Finland, hoitotiimi practices are aligned with national quality and safety frameworks and emphasize interprofessional collaboration and patient involvement. Training in teamwork and collaborative practice is common in health professional education. See also multidisciplinary team, interprofessional collaboration, and patient-centered care.