The call for a standardized approach to hands off communication is a response to recent findings that communication breakdowns during patient transfers are the single biggest cause of medical errors.
The Wall Street Journal reported that hospitals which fail to meet the Joint Commission’s standards may lose accreditation, which is required for reimbursement from Medicare and private insurers.
Formal hands off safety measures are already in place in some hospitals, including Kaiser Permanente, a California-based non-profit health-institute which has developed a communication model that enables doctors and nurses to convey the most important patient information in 60 seconds.
Kasier Permanente is also working on SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation), which provides a framework for communication between doctors and nurses about a patient’s condition.
The University Health System Consortium, consisting of 95 academic medical centers, recently published a guide on how to comply with the new Joint Commission standards, including how to use the SBAR program.
