Patient Hand Offs: Facilitating Safe and Effective Transitions of Care

Location

Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall

Description

PROBLEM: The hand off at the change of shift is a critical time for information exchange which can have significant impacts on quality of care and patient safety. On one medical-surgical unit the end of shift hand off has been identified as an area for improvement. LITERATURE REVIEW: Literature suggests that hand offs conducted at the patient’s bedside can help to decrease overtime and improve patient satisfaction scores. Evidence also supports the use of a standardized format for report. PROTOCOL/ INTERVENTION: The first step is to provide better education to patients and families on admission regarding the standard for bedside report. Nurses will ask the patient/family they like to be woken if they are sleeping to be included in the hand off. If the answer is yes a card will placed on the patient’s door to alert staff of their wishes to be included in report. The second step is to create a report utilizing the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) format. This tool would be laminated and affixed to the units work-stations-on-wheels (WOWs). BENEFITS/ BARRIERS: Anticipated benefits to better standardizing hand offs include: improved communication between nurses, improved communication between nursing and patients/families, a more efficient hand off process with less omission of information, and decreased time to conduct the hand offs. Perceived barriers include: potential costs, staff engagement, and compliance. OUTCOMES: Patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction, unit costs (related to decreased overtime), and patient length of stay will be targeted to improve with this protocol.

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Apr 16th, 3:30 PM

Patient Hand Offs: Facilitating Safe and Effective Transitions of Care

Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall

PROBLEM: The hand off at the change of shift is a critical time for information exchange which can have significant impacts on quality of care and patient safety. On one medical-surgical unit the end of shift hand off has been identified as an area for improvement. LITERATURE REVIEW: Literature suggests that hand offs conducted at the patient’s bedside can help to decrease overtime and improve patient satisfaction scores. Evidence also supports the use of a standardized format for report. PROTOCOL/ INTERVENTION: The first step is to provide better education to patients and families on admission regarding the standard for bedside report. Nurses will ask the patient/family they like to be woken if they are sleeping to be included in the hand off. If the answer is yes a card will placed on the patient’s door to alert staff of their wishes to be included in report. The second step is to create a report utilizing the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) format. This tool would be laminated and affixed to the units work-stations-on-wheels (WOWs). BENEFITS/ BARRIERS: Anticipated benefits to better standardizing hand offs include: improved communication between nurses, improved communication between nursing and patients/families, a more efficient hand off process with less omission of information, and decreased time to conduct the hand offs. Perceived barriers include: potential costs, staff engagement, and compliance. OUTCOMES: Patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction, unit costs (related to decreased overtime), and patient length of stay will be targeted to improve with this protocol.