A Performance Improvement Project to Improve Hand-off Communication Documentation within the Surgical Services Department

Abstract

, review of lab results, and review of other diagnostic test results to assure ABSTRACT Over 80% of adverse events in healthcare are due to miscommunication. To improve patient safety, The Joint Commission recommended the use of standardized hand-off communication tools in 2012. One acute care hospital located in the Southeastern United States implemented standardized hand-off reports as required and made few revisions since then. The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light additional critical information that was needed to keep patients and staff safe, such as laboratory results indicating the need for isolation precautions. The nurses within the surgical services department noticed this critical information was not consistently included in the hand-off reports. Omission of this critical information could potentially lead to unnecessary staff exposures and delays in treatments. The quality improvement nurse noticed a significant drop in the documentation of the hand-off report leading to concerns for patient and staff safety. The purpose of this performance improvement project was to improve the documentation of hand-off report which was the measurement used by the department to monitor the quality of hand-off reports within the department. The project followed the Plan-Do-Check-Act model for performance improvement to monitor, assess, and report the results to the staff and leaders. The documentation improved as a result of this project indicating improved hand-off reports.