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Structured patient handoff on an internal medicine ward: A cluster randomized control trial.

ABSTRACT: The effect of a multi-faceted handoff strategy in a high volume internal medicine inpatient setting on process and patient outcomes has not been clearly established. We set out to determine if a multi-faceted handoff intervention consisting of education, standardized handoff procedures, including fixed time and location for face-to-face handoff would result in improved rates of handoff compared with usual practice. We also evaluated resident satisfaction, health resource utilization and clinical outcomes.This was a cluster randomized controlled trial in a large academic tertiary care center with 18 inpatient internal medicine ward teams from January-April 2013. We randomized nine inpatient teams to an intervention where they received an education session standardizing who and how to handoff patients, with practice and feedback from facilitators. The control group of 9 teams continued usual non-standardized handoffs. The primary process outcome was the rate of patients handed over per 1000 patient nights. Other process outcomes included perceptions of inadequate handoff by overnight physicians, resource utilization overnight and hospital length of stay. Clinical outcomes included medical errors, frequency of patients requiring higher level of care overnight, and in-hospital mortality.The intervention group demonstrated a significant increase in the rate of patients handed over to the overnight physician (62.90/1000 person-nights vs. 46.86/1000 person-nights, p = 0.002). There was no significant difference in other process outcomes except resource utilization was increased in the intervention group (26.35/1000 person-days vs. 17.57/1000 person-days, p-value = 0.01). There was no significant difference between groups in medical errors (4.8% vs. 4.1%), need for higher level of care or in hospital mortality. Limitations include a dependence of accurate record keeping by the overnight physician, the possibility of cross-contamination in the handoff process, analysis at the cluster level and an overall low number of clinical events.Implementation of a multi-faceted resident handoff intervention did not result in a significant improvement in patient safety although did improve number of patients handed off. Novel methods to improve handoff need to be explored.Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01796756.

SUBMITTER: Tam P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5908079 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Structured patient handoff on an internal medicine ward: A cluster randomized control trial.

Tam Penny P Nijjar Aman P AP Fok Mark M Little Chris C Shingina Alexandra A Bittman Jesse J Raghavan Rashmi R Khan Nadia A NA

PloS one 20180419 4

<h4>Background</h4>The effect of a multi-faceted handoff strategy in a high volume internal medicine inpatient setting on process and patient outcomes has not been clearly established. We set out to determine if a multi-faceted handoff intervention consisting of education, standardized handoff procedures, including fixed time and location for face-to-face handoff would result in improved rates of handoff compared with usual practice. We also evaluated resident satisfaction, health resource utili ...[more]

PMID: 29672526

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Project description:BackgroundWard rounds form an integral part of Internal Medicine teaching. This study aimed to determine the trainees' opinions regarding various aspects of their ward rounds, including how well they cover their learning needs, how they would like the rounds to be conducted, and differences of opinion between medical students and postgraduates.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 134 trainees in Internal Medicine, comprising medical students, interns, residents and fellows, who were asked to fill in a structured, self-designed questionnaire. Most of the responses required a rating on a scale of 1-5 (1 being highly unsatisfactory and 5 being highly satisfactory).ResultsTeaching of clinical skills and bedside teaching received the lowest overall mean score (Mean +/- SD 2.48 +/- 1.02 and 2.49 +/- 1.12 respectively). They were rated much lower by postgraduates as compared to students (p < 0.001). All respondents felt that management of patients was the aspect best covered by the current ward rounds (Mean +/- SD 3.71 +/- 0.72). For their desired ward rounds, management of patients received the highest score (Mean +/- SD 4.64 +/- 0.55), followed by bedside examinations (Mean +/- SD 4.60 +/- 0.61) and clinical skills teaching (Mean +/- SD 4.50 +/- 0.68). The postgraduates desired a lot more focus on communication skills, counselling and medical ethics as compared to students, whose primary focus was teaching of bedside examination and management. A majority of the respondents (87%) preferred bedside rounds over conference room rounds. Even though the duration of rounds was found to be adequate, a majority of the trainees (68%) felt there was a lack of individual attention during ward rounds.ConclusionsThis study highlights important areas where ward rounds need improvement in order to maximize their benefit to the learners. There is a need to modify the current state of ward rounds in order to address the needs and expectations of trainees.

Project description:Clinician miscommunication contributes to an estimated 250?000 deaths in US hospitals per year. Efforts to standardize handoff communication may reduce errors and improve patient safety.To determine the effect of a standardized handoff curriculum, UW-IPASS, on interclinician communication and patient outcomes.This cluster randomized stepped-wedge randomized clinical trial was conducted from October 2015 to May 2016 at 8 medical and surgical intensive care units at 2 hospital systems within an academic tertiary referral center. Participants included residents, fellows, advance-practice clinicians, and attending physicians (n?=?106 clinicians, with 1488 handoff events over 8 months) and data were collected from daily text message-based surveys and patient medical records.The UW-IPASS standardized handoff curriculum.The primary aim was to assess the effect of the UW-IPASS handoff curriculum on perceived adequacy of interclinician communication. Patient days of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit length of stay, reintubations within 24 hours, and order workflow patterns were also analyzed. Mixed-effects logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios and confidence intervals with adjustment for location, time period, and clinician.A total of 63 residents and advance practice clinicians, 13 fellows, and 30 attending physicians participated in the study. During the control period, clinicians reported being unprepared for their shift because of a poor-quality handoff in 35 of 343 handoffs (10.2%), while UW-IPASS-period residents reported being unprepared in 53 of 740 handoffs (7.2%) (odds ratio, 0.19; 95% CI, 0.03-0.74; P?=?.03). Compared with the control phase, the perceived duration of handoffs among clinicians using UW-IPASS was unchanged (+5.5 minutes; 95% CI, 0.34-9.39; P?=?.30). Early morning order entry decreased from 106 per 100 patient-days in the control phase to 78 per 100 patient-days in the intervention period (-28 orders; 95% CI, -55 to -4; P?=?.04). Overall, UW-IPASS was not associated with any changes in intensive care unit length of stay, duration of mechanical ventilation, or the number of reintubations.The UW-IPASS standardized handoff curriculum was perceived to improve intensive care provider preparedness and workflow. IPASS-based curricula represent an important step forward in communication standardization efforts and may help reduce communication errors and omissions.isrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN14209509.

Project description:BackgroundThe capacity of general internal medicine (GIM) clinical teaching units has been strained by decreasing resident supply and increasing patient demand. The objective of our study was to compare the number of residents (supply) with the volume and duration of patient care activities (demand) to identify inefficiency.MethodsUsing the most recently available data from an academic teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, we identified each occurrence of a set of patient care activities that took place on the clinical teaching unit from 2015 to 2019. We completed a descriptive analysis of the frequencies of these activities and how the frequencies varied by hour, day, week, month and year. Patient care activities included admissions, rounds, responding to pages, meeting with patients and their families, patient transfers, discharges and responding to cardiac arrests. The estimated time to complete each task was based on the available data in our electronic medical record system and interviews with GIM physicians and trainees. To calculate resident utilization, the person-hours of patient care tasks was divided by the person-hours of resident supply. Resident utilization was computed for 3 scenarios corresponding to varying levels of resident absenteeism.ResultsDuring the study period, there were 14 581 consultations to GIM from the emergency department. Patient volumes tended to be highest during January and lowest during May and June, and highest on Monday morning and lowest on Friday night. Daily admissions to hospital from the emergency department were higher on weekdays than on weekends, and hourly admissions peaked at 8 am and between 3 pm and 1 am. Weekday resident utilization was generally highest between 8 am and 2 pm, and lowest between 1 am and 8 am. In a scenario in which all residents were present apart from those who were post-call, resident utilization generally never exceeded 100%; in scenarios in which at least 1 resident was absent owing to illness or vacation, it was common for resident utilization to approach or exceed 100%, particularly during daytime working hours.InterpretationAnalyzing supply and demand on a GIM ward has allowed us to identify periods when supply and demand are not aligned and to demonstrate empirically the vulnerability of current staffing models. These data have the potential to inform and optimize scheduling on an internal medicine ward.

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Structured patient handoff on an internal medicine ward: A cluster randomized control trial.

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Structured patient handoff on an internal medicine ward: A cluster randomized control trial.

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