Evaluation of a Novel Handoff Communication Strategy for Patients Admitted from the Emergency Department.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Miscommunication during inter-unit handoffs between emergency and internal medicine physicians may jeopardize patient safety. Our goal was to evaluate the impact of a structured communication strategy on the quality of admission handoffs.

Methods

We conducted a mixed-methods, pre-test/post-test study at a 560-bed academic health center with 60,000 emergency department (ED) patient visits per year. Admission-handoff best practices were integrated into a modified SBAR format, resulting in the Situation, Background, Assessment, Responsibilities & Risk, Discussion & Disposition, Read-back & Record (SBAR-DR) model. Physician handoff conversations were recorded and transcribed for the 60 days before (n=110) and 60 days after (n=110) introduction of the SBAR-DR strateg

SUBMITTER: Smith CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5851513 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature