16.45-18.00
Silo Busting – Challenging the old Problem of Interdisciplinary Work
Michael Binder – Medical Director of the Vienna Hospital Association
Anna Durnová, Political Scientist
Alexander W. Friedrich, University Medical Centre Groningen
Andreea Moldovan, St. Constantin Hospital Romania
Didier Pittet, Infection Control Programme & WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, The University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine
Thomas Szekeres, Austrian Medical Association
One of the most persisting problems in healthcare are departments: Thinking and acting in silos is not contributing to hospital hygiene. How can silos be busted?
What role could or should be taken by patients? Well informed and critical patients, as well as social media, could change the way nurses and doctors work – take a look at the changes in the tourism industry: reviews in online portals and on platforms can be existential for restaurants and hotels.
We have got the knowledge and technological know-how – why is infection-prevention, -surveillance and -control still an issue!?
At our conference in 2017 our topic was “Communication – the key for better infection surveillance and control”. During a lot of informal conversations we heard about great difficulties regarding hierarchies and that senior staff often prevents new working methods. How can we help healthcare workers change the system?
Changing the perspective can help a great deal – it is much easier to look at one discipline instead of looking at a system that puts patients first. When putting patients first, two things become clear – interdisciplinary work is necessary and the way budgets are being spent is debatable!