NO POLICY EXISTS REGARDING SAFE PATIENT HAND-OFFS DURING TRANSFER OF CARE AT THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HOSPITAL SURGERY CENTER.

Perioperative Communication and Patient Hand-offs: Best Practice

Kristi HoffmanSaint Cloud State University

The Importance of Perioperative Communication

Potential for adverse effects: Aside from the obvious, patients undergoing surgery experience adverse effects more often than patients in any other clinical specialty and disproportionately greater harm results from surgical errors.

Multiple Transitions occur during the perioperative experience, increasing likelihood of error, making effective communication paramount. Each caregiver through the perioperative process has specific responsibilities and objectives that are just as different as they are similar.

Factors that increase error potential include the need for rapid turnover and increased efficiency. To improve physician satisfaction and to accelerate throughput for the patient . The hurried environment is often the backdrop for communication errors and mistakes.

Ineffective Communication is the Most Frequently Cited Root-Cause of Sentinel Events

My Investigation

Regarding safe patient hand-offs:

A procedure DOES existNo policy existsEBP currently suggests having a policy

in place specific for hand-offs can prevent errors

Having a policy will reduce unnecessary redundancy while encouraging built-in redundancy of vital facts

Why do we have policies?

In general, having policies and procedures in health care help to ensure patient safety

Use Evidence Based Practice (EBP)to maintain quality of care

Provides a guideline for staff- if no policy, then what?

EBP Recommends:

Use of SBAR

SituationBackgroundAssessment

Recommendation

My Recommendations

Consider adding a formal policy that can be referred to

Consider a slightly more comprehensive real-time, verbal hand off

Additional training for both OR staff and SDC staff so that both departments have an understanding of the procedure