Early post-operative complications of the critically ill following major surgery can have devastating results (McElroy et al., 2015). These complications are mitigated by immediate detection and beginning of appropriate treatment or intervention (Hudson, McDonald, Hudson, Tran, & Boodhwani, 2015). These all require effective communication between the surgical and post-surgical team (Nagpal, Vats, Wong, Sevdalis, & Moorthy, 2012). The purpose of a handoff from the operating room (OR) to the intensive care unit (ICU), is to undertake and intermesh the physical transfer of the surgical patient with the knowledge of patient’s clinical information occurring from the surgical team to the accepting post-surgical team (McElroy et al, 2015). …show more content…
Evidence have shown that the use of a consistent, standardized, and structured handoff checklist will reduce the complexity involved during the process, hence reduce sentinel events and improve outcomes (Boat & Speath 2013; Segall et al, 2012). The NPSG identified new actions with intent to protect patient safety which recommends that healthcare systems utilize a standardized approach to handoff communications which should allow for feedbacks, questions and responses. The issues of increased patient injury secondary to medical errors from ineffective handoff communication remains a pressing problem despite the recommendation and mandates of the NPSG and the Joint Commission (Joint Commission, 2008). These existing problems with ineffective communication during handoff have been identified, hence the need for improvement in the communication gap. The significance of the study is to introduce and initiate a standardized and structured handoff communication tool and checklist to be used in the post-operative period between the surgical and the post-surgical team. Its usage could improve verbal and non-verbal communication, decrease in medical errors, better quality of care, patient safety, and overall satisfaction of usage by the teams involved. CONCEPT DEFINITION The term “Handoff”
Awareness should be built among the doctors and nurses on the risks of medical errors owing to miscommunications. This can be done by periodically doing policy review sessions on patient safety.
As shown, communication is a critical to hospital’s patient safety. The Joint Commission is a regulatory agency that makes hospital think about
The Priority Focus Area of Communication includes 3 Joint Commission (JC) standards relative to Universal Protocol. These 3 standards, which are components of the National Patient Safety Goals, are aimed at ensuring the correct
This requires critical thinking and reliance on one's one staff and healthcare system. The healthcare system has many safety measures, such as better medication and patient scanning systems, bed or chair alarms to alert staff, and the call-light system to let patient request staff in a timely manner. Though there are measures in place to try and limit errors they still happen. Even if a patient is on a bed alarm the patient could still fall while ambulating. Safety call-outs are a way to track what happen or almost happen and to further prevent such occurrences from happening again. It goes beyond just blaming one single to person
Given the complexity of healthcare system today, effective and efficient collaboration and communication among team members is critical to ensure patient safety. Daniel & Rosentein (2008) reported that during a typical patient’s hospital stay, a patient may interact with 50 different employees that may include doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, etc. They also reported that when healthcare professional are not communicating and collaborating effectively, patient safety is at risk for several reasons: break in communication flow, misinterpretation of information, incorrect telephone orders and overlooked orders.
Bradley, S., & Mott, S. (2010). Handover: Faster and safer? Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(1), 23-32
| |members in bedside handover, it could lead to a collaborative alliance between the |
* Personnel Issues: One of the key barriers to effective interaction for the pre-op nurses is that they are not getting any information from the registrar or the surgeon related to the patients unique circumstances. There is not a communication process in place for the pre-op nurse to actively communicate with the surgeon or his office regarding a patient’s care during their day of surgery. An additional factor in this situation was the pre-op nurse documented the mother’s contact information in her notepad, but not on the
“Errors in communication give rise to substantial clinical morbidity and mortality (Riesenberg, Leitzsch, & Cunningham, 2010).” As a result, the Joint Commission has identified effective communication as one of its National Patient Safety Goals (Dunsford, 2009).
The significance of the study is to discuss and clarify why bedside reporting is the best method of patient handoff. The benefits associated with this kind of bedside reporting and if implemented, how it will be of help to
In preparation of a review from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Nightingale Community Hospital will focus on improving its communication process in the operating room. The purpose of communication in the healthcare setting is to disseminate information in such a way as to create shared understanding about the patient and about what needs to be done for a positive outcome. (synergia.com) A patient is at his most vulnerable state during procedures that require sedation or anesthesia. The patient is releasing his decision making ability and safety into the control and care of the healthcare team. Therefore, effective communication on behalf of the patient is
‘Clear and complete communication between health care providers is a prerequisite for safe patient management. Which is a major priority of the Joint Commission's 2008 National Patient Safety Goals and long-term care (LCT). (Commission, 2008)
A weakness in communication between interdisciplinary team members can impact patient safety and health . A recent study revealed that out of all the claims analyzed , 57 percent of malpractice cases reflected miscommunication between two or more healthcare providers (Riah, 2015). In fact, the same communication failures directly linked to 1,744 deaths over the past five years (Budryk, 2016). During my clinical placement this semester I have witnessed the overwhelming number of health care team members that are involved in each patient’s care. I also take part in morning nursing rounds where all nurses are updated on every patient’s status. Transmission of permanent patient information is also relayed to all members of the health team via the patient chart .Here , interdisciplinary notes all come together to form updated health information on patients. However, although I have read interdisciplinary notes from all team members , I rarely have had the opportunity to personally communicate with members other than doctors and nurses. Personal communication allows for a team member to pass on relevant information in a timely manner without the possibility or misinterpretations. When communication is strictly done non-verbally, it is impossible to ask any questions.. This is why communication between professionals in health care is essential for patient safety and improved quality of care (Koivunen, Niemi., & Hupli,2015). There are 3 main factors that cause miscommunication
Open communication is essential part to a successful healthcare team that directly impacts patient’s lives. In the video “Just a Routine Operation, ” by Laedal Medical Human Factors in Patient Safety, physicians and nurses demonstrates how different human factors contribute to the overall outcome of the patient. Elaine, the patient in the video came into the hospital for a reconstruction surgery. However, during the surgery Elaine had a complication and because the lack of communication, assertiveness, self-awareness, decision-making, teamwork, and prioritization, Elaine did not survive the surgery. This situation shows how important these characteristics are when dealing with emergency care. Even the health care professional with the years
Effective communication is imperative in the health care environment, and is extremely important to patient safety. The SBAR communication technique provides an organized logical sequence to improve communication between health care professionals. A study published in January 2015 found several barriers to effective communication in a handoff report were related to failures to understanding the information and information disorganization. Therefore, they found using that a structured tool for communication with categories assisted in ensuring information completeness, as well as understanding the context of the hand off