In March, researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health released a report detailing the importance of communication in cardiovascular care.

The report was straightforward: "Primary-care teams with more members talking to each other face-to-face every day deliver higher-quality cardiovascular disease (CVD) care at a lower cost."

Observed benefits included a 73 percent reduction in emergency department visits for the team's patients with CVD, 66 percent fewer urgent care visits, and an average savings of $506 per patient.

Every team member learns something from every patient, but often this learning is not shared throughout the organization, even at the unit or team level. Making it possible for more team members to directly interact would allow for this personal learning to spread, creating an essential learning community for delivering quality care.

What do you think? Does your cardiovascular team have enough opportunity to communicate? Are you seeing dividends in patient outcomes? Comment below!

Stay tuned! Over the next few weeks ACVP will bring you 2-5 of our essential characteristics for highly effective cardiovascular teams among other updates from ACVP Blog. Subscribe via the opt-in box on the sidebar to get updates sent directly to your email inbox.