Intensive care discharges: improving the quality of clinical handover through changes to discharge documentation.

ABSTRACT: Patients who have stepped down from intensive care tread a precarious clinical course, and the handover of care between clinical teams at this point should be treated as a high risk event. Poor handover can leave patients vulnerable to suboptimal care and preventable harm. Properly structured written discharge summaries have been shown to improve information transfer and quality of care. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidelines entitled "Acute illness in adults in hospital: recognising and responding to deterioration," which states that patients transferred from intensive care should have a formal structured handover supported by a written plan, and it provides minimum criteria for what information should be included. A retrospective audit was c

SUBMITTER: Hall W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4693087 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature