Table 3.

Communication patterns in practices

Practice	Characteristics	Communication patterns
Family medicine A	Low trust High diversity Low mindfulness Moderate heedful inter-relation Low respectful interaction Moderate social and task relatedness Moderate rich and lean communication	Fragmented
Exemplar quote	‘Because my partner and I are completely opposite in the way that we approach the EHR, and I have a paper chart, I usually make fun of him when our EHR is down, he's actually frozen in his tracks, he has no idea who somebody is, what medication they're on and he has no information because he has no paper backup; I'm still working because I work with paper and I'm not looking at somebody and saying, “Okay, who are you and what medications are you taking?” I don't look like an idiot you know.’
Family medicine B	Moderate trust Low diversity Moderate mindfulness Moderate heedful inter-relation Moderate respectful interaction Low social and task relatedness Moderate rich and lean communication	Fragmented
Exemplar quote	‘I used to see the other two doctors here as mentors but that's kind of changed now. We're always doing our own thing here…seeing our own patients you know and we don't really talk much about our work.’
Family medicine C	High trust Moderate diversity High mindfulness High heedful inter-relation High respectful interaction High social and task relatedness High rich and lean communication	Cohesive
Exemplar quote	‘We do things very differently from (family medicine B). We're more of a team on this side than they are over there. We work together to get the job done. If someone is out, we pick up the slack and get patients taken care of. Physicians don't have a nurse assigned to them on this side; any nurse can work with any physician. It's important that we work together to take care of our patients.’
Specialty practice A	High trust Moderate diversity High mindfulness High heedful inter-relation High respectful interaction Moderate social and task relatedness Moderate rich and lean communication	Cohesive
Exemplar quote	‘One of the things that might be an advantage for us is that it's just two of us and I think that we have a great relationship—we respect each other a lot and we are always talking about how to improve things not just for the electronic medical record but for the clinic as a whole and so we are constantly communicating, “Now what do you think of changing this? What do you think about tweaking that?” and we do that all day long, and so we have a really good, you know, relationship and supporting each other in improving our product together. We think alike and we both want this to work so that I think that gives us an advantage.’
Specialty practice B	High trust Moderate diversity High mindfulness High heedful inter-relation High respectful interaction Moderate social and task relatedness High rich and lean communication	Cohesive
Exemplar quote	‘I think everybody has an area of interest and expertise and; well I suppose again it's a team. So if this was a football team and I wasn't a good kicker but I could throw I'd naturally be the quarterback. So all of us partners would say we share, you know, we second opinion each other all the time, on cases. Or if there's an area that you know one guy clearly has an interest in, then, you know, we go to him. Not because he's smarter than the rest of us, it's just that he has an area of interest that's different than my own, so naturally he's more versed in that area.’
Specialty practice C	Moderate trust Moderate diversity Low mindfulness Moderate heedful inter-relation Low respectful interaction Low social and task relatedness Low rich and lean communication	Fragmented
Exemplar quote	‘I don't know why (Dr X) doesn't like the EHR. I think we have such differences because we think differently about how we practice medicine. I think that the more we can use this system, the more we'll know about our patients down the road. I don't think (Dr X) or (Dr Y) think this way. We all kind a do our own thing here.’