Patient Handoffs in Healthcare and the Quality of Medical Care

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Table of Contents

Quality of Healthcare in the Conditions of Patient Handoffs
Patient Handoffs from the Perspective of Medical Institutions
References

Quality of Healthcare in the Conditions of Patient Handoffs

The quality of medical care directly depends on how this or that healthcare institution provides help and assistance to those in need (Boat & Spaeth, 2013). One of the current problems is patient handoffs among different medical centers and departments, which affects the effectiveness of treatment and has a negative impact on the period of recovery. The fact is that when a person does not have a regular doctor or a nurse and is forced to receive assistance from different specialists, the quality of treatment will be lower compared to that when patients stay in the same department permanently (Hunter et al., 2017). Also, people experience discomfort from the need for constant examinations from different specialists (Hoskote et al., 2016).

Children deserve particular attention because it is hard enough for them to adapt to any changes when it comes to treatment in a hospital (Patton et al., 2017). A long-term stay in clinics for such patients is stress, and when they have to be examined continuously by different pediatricians and other specialists, they can not get used to people and are forced to experience constant fear. According to Funk et al. (2016), even if doctors and nurses pay attention to young patients, children tend to worry about the fact that they often have to be treated in new places. Certainly, excitement and stress cannot have a positive effect on morale and are usually the causes of depression. Consequently, the improvement of the quality and speed of patient transferring to other departments, such as intensive care, will improve medical care quality since too long the treatment process in different places negatively affects both the moral and physical state of people.

Patient Handoffs from the Perspective of Medical Institutions

Although the system of patient handoffs is an inconvenience and causes discomfort in patients, this process is suitable and favorable for a number of clinics and medical institutions that do not have sufficient equipment. Nevertheless, these measures can take a very long time, especially when the hospital does not have a fully developed system of document circulation (Salzwedel, Mai, Punke, Kluge, & Reuter, 2016). Moreover, when doctors or nurses deal with complex cases, they have to spend quite a lot of time to decide which studies should be conducted and which measures should be taken immediately (Starmer et al., 2017). Lengthy procedures of discussion slow the process of treatment and negatively affect the condition of patients.

Also, physicians and nurses’ attempts to conduct comprehensive studies can cause dissatisfaction on the part of patients who can file a complaint with higher authorities. Hospital administrators have to ensure that staff can systematize the process of patient handoffs (Klee, Latta, Davis-Kirsch, & Pecchia, 2012). If employees are good at coping with their responsibilities and are able to competently assess a person’s condition in order to send him or her to another department, it is an advantage for both patients and the clinic itself (Dixon, 2015). However, the workers of medical institutions are not always able to organize the whole process of work competently, and it negatively affects the quality of medical care and the terms of treatment, especially when it comes to complex interventions or operations (Moon, Gonzales, Woods, & Fox, 2016). Therefore, the patient handoff system requires rather serious preparation and a competent approach from doctors and nurses.

References

Boat, A. C., & Spaeth, J. P. (2013). Handoff checklists improve the reliability of patient handoffs in the operating room and postanesthesia care unit. Pediatric Anesthesia, 23(7), 647-654.

Dixon, J. L., Stagg, H. W., Wehbe-Janek, H., Jo, C., Culp, W. C., & Shake, J. G. (2015). A standard handoff improves cardiac surgical patient transfer: Operating room to intensive care unit. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 37(1), 22-32.

Funk, E., Taicher, B., Thompson, J., Iannello, K., Morgan, B., & Hawks, S. (2016). Structured handover in the pediatric postanesthesia care unit. Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing, 31(1), 63-72.

Hoskote, S. S., Racedo Africano, C. J., Braun, A. B., O’Horo, J. C., Sevilla Berrios, R. A., Loftsgard, T. O.,… & Smischney, N. J. (2016). Improving the quality of handoffs in patient care between critical care providers in the intensive care unit. American Journal of Medical Quality, 32(4), 376-383.

Hunter, H., Tara, C., Wesley, C., Juliane, B., Susan, H., Paula, S.,… & Renaldo, B. (2017). Assessing SBAR during intraoperative handoff. Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management, 6, 7-10.

Klee, K., Latta, L., Davis-Kirsch, S., & Pecchia, M. (2012). Using continuous process improvement methodology to standardize nursing handoff communication. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 27(2), 168-173.

Moon, T. S., Gonzales, M. X., Woods, A. P., & Fox, P. E. (2016). Improving the quality of the operating room to intensive care unit handover at an urban teaching hospital through a bundled intervention. Journal of Clinical Anesthesia, 31, 5-12.

Patton, L. J., Tidwell, J. D., Falder-Saeed, K. L., Young, V. B., Lewis, B. D., & Binder, J. F. (2017). Ensuring safe transfer of pediatric patients: A quality improvement project to standardize handoff communication. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 34, 44-52.

Salzwedel, C., Mai, V., Punke, M. A., Kluge, S., & Reuter, D. A. (2016). The effect of a checklist on the quality of patient handover from the operating room to the intensive care unit: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of critical care, 32, 170-174.

Starmer, A. J., Spector, N. D., West, D. C., Srivastava, R., Sectish, T. C., & Landrigan, C. P. (2017). Integrating research, quality improvement, and medical education for better handoffs and safer care: Disseminating, adapting, and implementing the I-PASS program. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 43, 319-329.

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