When health professionals collaborate rather than operating in silos, everyone benefits – patients, families and the health system at large. This is a fact supported by ample research evidence. The professionals reap the benefits, too: staff satisfaction and retention are improved through collaboration.
But in the real world, health professionals and departments often slip into silo mentalities. And silos in healthcare, as US cardiologist Laurence Sparling writes, are bad for healthcare. The “cure”, Sparling argues, is integrated healthcare with “cross-silo dialogue” – collaborative healthcare.
