Patient Safety Update
Hand Off Policy Enhances Patient Safety
Any time a nurse ends a shift, takes a lunch break or steps out for a cup of coffee, he or she must communicate certain information to the nurse or nurses assuming patient care responsibilities.
The Department of Nursing has a policy that standardizes the content of this handoff communication among nurses to ensure accurate and essential information is transferred in order to provide the safest care possible.
“Standardizing handoffs is crucial to patient safety and continuity of care,” said Teresa Buchanan, RN, MBA, Nursing’s quality program manager for Medicine, Cardiovascular and Emergency Medicine.
Inpatient units are using a new audit tool to make sure that handoffs between nurses include the necessary information. “Our goal is to start audits across the board in January,” Buchanan said.
Improving handoff communication also is a component of the JCAHO’s second National Patient Safety Goal: improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.
Keep these points in mind when handing off patient care:
• Handoffs should be interactive with the ability to ask questions and provide feedback.
• Interruptions should be minimized.
• The content of the report should be objective, concise and relevant to the nursing plan of care. Be sensitive to a patient’s right to privacy and confidentiality (HIPAA).
• Handoffs must include at least the following components: name, date of birth, admitting diagnosis, current condition, recent change in condition and plan of care and anticipated changes in condition and plan of care including what to watch for in next interval of care