Transfers from intensive care unit to hospital ward: a multicentre textual analysis of physician progress notes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Little is known about documentation during transitions of patient care between clinical specialties. Therefore, we examined the focus, structure and purpose of physician progress notes for patients transferred from the intensive care unit (ICU) to hospital ward to identify opportunities to improve communication breaks.

Methods

This was a prospective cohort study in ten Canadian hospitals. We analyzed physician progress notes for consenting adult patients transferred from a medical-surgical ICU to hospital ward. The number, length, legibility and content of notes was counted and compared across care settings using mixed-effects linear regression models accounting for clustering within hospitals. Qualitative content analyses were conducted on a stratified random sam

SUBMITTER: Brown KN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5787341 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature