# QUALITY OF GERIATRIC TEAM FUNCTIONING

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 1991 · $221,909

## Abstract

Because of the complex health needs of the elderly,
interdisciplinary teams are becoming the preferred mode of
delivering care to older persons.  The quality of team functioning
(QTF) may exert important influences on team members' stress and
patient care outcomes, yet little is known about factors that
influence QTF.  Team development (TD) theory provides the
theoretical basis for this study.  The specific aims are:  1) to
test hypotheses about the relationship of TD to QTF and team
members' stress/burnout; 2) to test hypotheses about factors
related to TD; and 3) to explore differences among types of teams
and disciplines on team properties and stress; 4) to explore the
relationship between TD, QTF and patient care outcomes in HBHC
teams, where standard outcome measures are being developed.  Moving
beyond the small samples of previous team studies (usually one case
in an experimental demonstration project), this study uses a
national sample of 100 geriatric teams from 32 VAMCs in a cross-
sectional survey design.  To explore differences, these teams are
drawn in equal numbers (30 each) from three programs -- Geriatric
Evaluation and Management (GEM), Hospital-Based Home Care (HBHC),
Nursing Home Care (NHC).  The remaining teams (about 12) are Adult
Day Health Care (ADHC) from the sampled VAMCs.  A questionnaire is
administered by the investigators to obtain perceptions of team
properties from all disciplines represented on the teams (900-1200
members).  Pilot work has refined both conceptualization and
measurement.  Structural equation modeling employing LISREL is used
to test a set of hypotheses:  1) TD, as indicated by the structure
of informal roles and low anomie in the team, positively affects
QTF, which consists of a cluster of interrelated team properties
(i.e., openness of communication, organizational efficiency,
solidarity), and TD negatively affects team members'
stress/burnout; 2) TD is positively affected by team stability and
members' degree of embeddedness in their team is opposed to
discipline-specific networks; 3) TD is negatively affected by team
size, heterogeneity of demographic characteristics of team members,
team work load, and physicians' attitudes toward team care.  Since
multiple indicators of some constructs are used, a measurement
model is identified, estimated, tested and modified prior to
testing the structural equation model.  Exploratory analysis of
differences of team type and discipline employ one-way and repeated
measures ANOVA.  Finally, the relationship between QTF and patient
care outcomes in HBHC teams is explored.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3120752
- **Project number:** 1R01AG008957-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **SAM.gov UEI:** F27KDXZMF9Y8
- **Principal Investigator:** MADELINE H SCHMITT
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1991
- **Award amount:** $221,909
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 1991-06-01 → 1993-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3120752

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3120752, QUALITY OF GERIATRIC TEAM FUNCTIONING (1R01AG008957-01A1). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3120752. Licensed CC0.

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