Successful Handoffs Lead to Smooth Transitions in Health Care

Communication is a cornerstone to patient safety, and one of the major interactions where communication is essential is during a patient handoff. The handoff process is when one health care provider is transferring the patient to another health care provider and represents coordination of patient care. The information provided during this exchange begins the journey toward a positive outcome or missed information has the potential for a serious error. The poor interchange of information from one health care provider (sender) to another provider (receiver) can occur for a variety of reasons, including the lack of time, interruptions or distractions, forgotten information, confusing jargon used by the providers, or the lack of documentation.
Source: Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: Patient Safety Source Type: research