"Our Hands Are Tied Until Your Doctor Gets Here": Nursing Perspectives on Inter-hospital Transfers.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The transfer of patients between hospitals (inter-hospital transfer, or IHT) is a common occurrence for patients, but guidelines to ensure safe and effective IHTs are lacking. Poor IHTs result in higher rates of mortality, longer lengths of stay, and higher hospitalization costs compared to admissions from the emergency department. Nurses are often the first point of contact for IHT patients and can provide valuable insights on key challenges to IHT processes.

Objective

To characterize the experiences of inpatient floor-level bedside nurses caring for IHT patients and identify care coordination challenges and solutions.

Design/participants/approach

Qualitative study using semi-structured focus groups and interviews conducted from October 2019 to July 2020 w

SUBMITTER: Yu A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8735724 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature