The effect of standard patient handover intervention on improving the quality of transfer from the operating room to the intensive care units

Background: Handover from the operating room (OR) to the intensive care unit (ICU) is a complicated process that may endanger patients' lives. Objectives: The present study determined the effect of a standard patient handover protocol on the quality of transfer from the cardiac OR to the cardiac ICU. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in 2020 at an adult cardiac surgery center in Ahvaz city, Iran. Sixty-two handover cases were assessed before (n = 31) and after (n = 31) a training intervention on the nursing staff in the OR and ICU. The training intervention covered the process of standard handover. A checklist was used to evaluate the quality of care through the process of handover. The checklist consisted of three subscales. The independent samples t, Fisher's exact or chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean score of the technical errors was 10.61 ± 1.20 before the intervention and changed to 12.61 ± 0.80 after the intervention (P < 0.001). The mean score of ignoring information was 10.21 ± 1.78 before the intervention and changed to 14.00 ± 1.92 following the intervention (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Implementation of a standard handover protocol for post-cardiac surgery patients can decrease the intermission and improve the quality of care during patient handover.