Poor handover between doctors, nurses and multidisciplinary teams is a common cause of error in hospitals, and is a major preventable cause of patient harm. It can lead to inefficiencies, repetitions, delayed decisions, repeated investigations, incorrect diagnoses, incorrect treatment, and poor communication with the patient. Some hospitals do not even have a handover protocol in place.
Now the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has produced a toolkit to provide a framework for standardisation of clinical handover practice, audit and monitoring of the process, and defining accountability and responsibilities in the process.
The toolkit defines the principles behind good handover practice, what the handover framework should contain, and the specific elements within each handover that need to be carried out to avoid mistakes. Download the full toolkit from the Resources section of the RCP website.
Download the free handover templates from the Resources section of the RCP website
Professor Humphrey Hodgson, RCP education vice president, said:
There is increasing pressure within the hospital service, and different ways of working have evolved over the last few years. The shorter working hours for medical trainees under the European Working Time regulations, and the increasing use of short-stay medical admissions units, so that patients may well be transferred between teams, are only two of the reasons why a robust and effective handover system is needed for patient safety and high quality care. This toolkit, the first of a series aimed at offering guidance on best quality care, outlines the principles and gives practical advice about handover.
Dr Cordelia Coltart, RCP clinical adviser, who helped develop the toolkit, said:
The current moves towards shorter working hours must not detract from the ultimate responsibility of doctors to ensure safe, efficient and effective care for their patients. Handover has been identified as a particularly ‘high-risk’ step in the patient pathway, where errors are likely to occur. These errors are preventable and this toolkit aims to give practical guidance to assess and improve the handover process within your trust to improve patient safety and care.