“Of One Mind – Meeting Patients Where They’re At”: The Shared Mental Models of Goal-Oriented Care

Many primary care organizations are in the midst of a transformation towards delivering team-based care that is coordinated, person centered, and goal oriented. However, taking a team approach to care delivery has proved to be challenging for many teams, particularly when there is a need to work across organizational boundaries. Understanding the mental models of providers and leaders involved in the delivery of team-based primary care is one approach to identify the mechanisms behind effective teamwork. This paper examines the extent to which shared mental models exist among a team that adopted a goal-oriented approach to deliver team-based primary care. We conducted a secondary analysis of a qualitative dataset from a case study of an interdisciplinary and trans-organizational team that successfully transformed the delivery of primary care in Vermont, United States. Using Shared Mental Model Theory, we explicate the content of providers' and leaders' mental models in delivering goal-oriented care (i.e., knowledge and beliefs regarding their task and team). We found evidence of strong shared mental models of goal-oriented care in the team under study. The results provide a framework of key elements of shared mental models which may be required for team-based delivery of goal-oriented care.