Happy Handoffs

1. Happy Handoffs The Cornerstone of Success for Residency in the Modern Age

2. Happy Handoffs • Lecture outline slide

3. What is a handoff • Communication… • Depends on the communicator’s clinical experience (blueprint)

4. Why are Handoffs so important? • More time ‘passing the baton’ • Multiple handoffs for each patient dailydue to the team based approach to patient care versus single provider • In 2010 Joint Commission added handoff into Accreditations Standards (Blueprint article) • We are all on the same ‘team’ • There is no ‘my patient – your patient’. We are all responsible for the patient at any given time

5. What are the goals of each handoff Discussion of plan of care with the team • Minimize disruptions in continuity of care • Emphasize patient safety NOT a one-way street for passive communication (blueprint)

6. What happens if handoffs are not effective • Adverse events • Longer hospital stays • Increased cost of patient care • High risk situations: Patient critical/unstable, transitions of primary caregiver, first time listener is learning about patient (blueprint)

7. No doctor is an island • Some residents may feel that they should personally complete certain tasks • Attendings may perpetuate this ideology (‘when I was a resident…”) • Understanding when it is appropriate and when it is not appropriate to hand off patient care is one of the more difficult skills learned during internship

8. The impact of EMR on handoffs • EMR supported handoff tools will become more widespread • On the record versus off the record • Questions of liability • Multidisciplinary editing of the EMR handoff

9. Cross Cover Tips

10. What to include in written handoff

11. What to say during verbal handoff

12. The Handoff Environment