Abstract
Effective communication among healthcare disciplines, professions, and patients is crucial for delivering coordinated inpatient care and achieving improved patient outcomes. The practice of daily rounds has a long history, evolving over time in structure and in the individuals involved. Rounds increasingly include diverse healthcare professionals and, in some cases, patients and families. However, inconsistent terminology—such as interprofessional, interdisciplinary, multiprofessional, and multidisciplinary—complicates research and implementation of team rounding practices. Existing reviews have explored interprofessional and patient- and family-centered rounds but less frequently addressed interdisciplinary rounds and global settings. We will conduct a systematic mapping review to describe the landscape of literature on interdisciplinary, interprofessional, and patient- and family-centered rounds in hospital settings worldwide (PROSPERO CRD420250655348). We aim to examine how daily care rounds are defined, who participates, what frameworks are utilized, and where these practices are studied. Additionally, we will identify reported strategies for implementing rounds and measures used to assess outcomes on patients, families, clinicians, healthcare teams, and institutions. Following PRISMA-P guidelines, we will include peer-reviewed quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies published since 1990, with no geographic or language restrictions. Eligible studies must focus on daily inpatient rounds involving multiple professions, disciplines, and/or patients and families, and report outcomes or implementation strategies. Data will be extracted on study characteristics, rounding practices, interventions, outcomes, and barriers or facilitators to implementation. Study quality will be assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Our review will provide a comprehensive synthesis of global rounding practices, highlight gaps in definitions and implementation strategies, and inform future interventions to enhance team communication in diverse hospital settings. By capturing a broad range of studies, this work will support efforts to standardize and expand team rounds to improve hospital care coordination worldwide.