1 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A Y 2 0 1 8
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taff in our hospital's
pre-op areas, ORs and
PACU had developed
their own handoff communica-
tion tools — handwritten
notes, index cards — to relay
important clinical information
as patients moved along the
perioperative pathway. That
lack of standardization led to
miscommunications that could
have resulted in patient harm,
so we identified critical infor-
mation that needs to travel
with patients — medication
allergies, blood glucose levels
and vital signs, for example —
and created a handoff tool in
an easy-to-read checkbox and
fill-in-the-blank format. The
tool consists of 2 sheets: Pre-
op staff fill out the top form
and the OR and PACU teams
note info on the second one. A
local print shop helped us
design the format and produce
the sheets. Here's a neat effi-
ciency-enhancing part of the
ON THE MOVE
Handoff Tool Improves Speed and Safety
• TEAR AND GO A carbon copy sheet keeps patients moving from pre-op to the ORs.
Rebecca
Roe,
BSN,
RN,
CNOR
Ideas Work
That
