Novel Perioperative Handoff Tools (protocols and instructional video) to Guide Multidisciplinary Transfer of Information and Technology Following a Patient Operation or Procedure

C10799: Perioperative Handoff Tools Following a Patient Operation or Procedure

The disclosed invention is a protocol & educational video to guide perioperative patient handoffs from the operating room to ICU to PACU. This protocol details: [1] key multidisciplinary health care providers who should be present at the bedside, [2] orders the steps of the handoff (information and technological), and [3] provides for anticipatory guidance and questions/answer sessions. This also includes another protocol to standardize the content of the report given by the involved health care providers.

Technical Details:

Miscommunication amongst health care providers has been cited by The Joint Commission as a main source of safety errors in the healthcare setting. One notable venue for such miscommunication is the transfer of care that occurs when a patient is shifted from one team of providers to another. Housestaff shiftwork signouts are typically unidisciplinary (internal medicine, neurology, psychiatry etc), non-hierarchal (i.e. resident to resident, not resident to attending), and involve patients already situated on a hospital floor. On the other hand, OR-to-ICU/PACU handoffs are multidisciplinary, often co-mix providers at different levels of training, and involve patients in transit, who are by definition at high risk of clinical instability during this acute phase of care. Perioperative handoffs are thus, by nature, much more multi-dimensional and complex events than floor signouts. Furthermore, such transfers involve not only the exchange of information but also include the transfer of technology including monitors, transducers, ventilators, and lines to name a few. At healthcare venues worldwide, it is well-recognized that these perioperative patient transfers often result in sentinel events and patient harm due to disorganized, non-standardized processes, and hospitals have struggled to address these issues.

Looking for Partners:

This developed protocol achieves the following: [1] standardizes the perioperative patient handoff process making handoffs replicable based on health care role not individual provider style, [2] creates a multidisciplinary handoff team, [3] distinguishes and orders transfers of information from transfers of technology, [4] standardizes the content and order of information given in the report, [5] provides for anticipatory guidance, and [6] formalizes a face-to-face question & answer session amongst providers.