Development and Implementation of a Hospital-Wide Multidisciplinary Team Care Model in a Tertiary General Hospital in China: A Project Report
Gongming Zhao, Xinyu Tao, Chen Qu, Ling ZhaoBackground: Patients with multimorbidity, multisystem disease, rare conditions, or competing treatment priorities frequently require coordination beyond the scope of a single specialty. This Project Report describes the development and implementation of a hospital-wide multidisciplinary team (MDT) care model at a tertiary general hospital in China. Methods: The report synthesizes institutional documents and routine program records describing MDT governance, workflow, digital support, operational activity, and implementation experience. Quantitative indicators for 2021–2025 were summarized descriptively. No comparator group was included, and no causal effectiveness analysis or inferential statistical testing was performed. Results: Initiated with a geriatric medicine MDT in 2015, the program subsequently developed into a hospital-wide framework comprising seven clinical-domain-based MDT centers by 2023. The number of participating departments increased from 4 in 2021 to 23 in 2025, while the annual number of patients receiving MDT care increased overall from 32 to 223. Virtual MDT predominated during 2021–2022, whereas on-site MDT became the predominant mode from 2023 onward. MDT sessions involving trainees increased from 15 in 2021 to 119 in 2025. The program incorporated standardized case selection, structured multidisciplinary review, documented consensus planning, follow-up and repeat review, and digital support for information sharing and remote participation. Implementation experience highlighted practical challenges related to expert coordination, multidisciplinary consensus, information completeness, follow-up, clinician participation, and cross-campus coordination. Conclusions: The experience indicates that hospital-wide MDT care functions as an institutional coordination system rather than an isolated case-conference mechanism. Implementation of such a model may depend on governance, standardized workflows, reliable information exchange, administrative coordination, clinician participation, and closed-loop follow-up. Prospective evaluation is required to determine effects on clinical, process, patient-reported, and economic outcomes.