The health care manager
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Regular, interdisciplinary group meetings, "huddles," may be useful in improving communication among disciplines, resolving problems, and sharing information. Daily use of huddles may contribute to the development of a highly reliable health care organization. The purpose of this study was to describe safety huddles in relation to (1) problem type, (2) timeliness of resolution, (3) attendance of representatives from each discipline, (4) amount of information sharing, and (5) attendees' satisfaction with the process. ⋯ Regarding satisfaction with the huddle process, staff reported that huddles were useful in improving awareness of safety concerns and also improved communication between disciplines. Huddles provide a structured format in which staff can positively impact safety concerns, form a greater sense of medical community, increase sharing of information between disciplines, quickly resolve discipline-based problems, and increase awareness of safety concerns. Given the results of this study, it is recommended that health care administrators and managers develop a huddle process.