Analyzing and mitigating the risks of patient harm during operating room to intensive care unit patient handoffs.

ABSTRACT: Patients continue to suffer from preventable harm and uneven quality outcomes. Reliable clinical outcomes depend on the quality of robust administrative systems and reliable support processes. Critically ill patient handoffs from the operating room (OR) to the intensive care unit (ICU) are known to be high-risk events. We describe a novel perspective on how risk factors associated with the process of patient handoff communication between the OR and the ICU can lead to flawed communication, degraded team awareness, medical errors, and increased patient harm. Data were collected from two semi-structured focus groups using a five-step risk management approach at a tertiary hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. We conducted a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) with multidisciplinary healthcare

SUBMITTER: Martins NRS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11739622 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature