Patient Handoff Communication Checklist for Nurses

Patient handoffs are a regular occurrence for nurses during every shift, whether they happen during sign-ins, sign-offs, within a care location (such as transitioning a patient into the care of a recovery team), or even during breaks and other care transitions. 

The Joint Commission found that an estimated 80% of serious medical errors involve miscommunication between caregivers when patients are transferred or handed off.¹ A thorough nurse communication checklist can ensure nurses pass along all key information during a handoff. This, in turn, will positively impact a patient’s experience and outcome in most care settings. 

What Is a Patient Handoff?  

A patient handoff (also known as a patient handover, clinical handover, or shift-to-shift handoff) transfers a patient’s care responsibility from one caregiver or team to another. It provides continuity of patient care and ensures patients’ needs are met during transitions within a care environment.  

Nurses deal with many different handoff scenarios, and all of them require close attention to detail. No matter the reason for a handoff, clear and thorough communication is essential for ensuring an effective handoff and providing timely, high-quality care. 

Consequences of Inadequate Patient Handoffs 

“A poor patient handoff can contribute to vital information being forgotten or missed, leading to delays in care, extended hospital stays, and confusion,” said Marian Altman, PhD, RN, CNS-BC, CCRN-K, a clinical practice specialist with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, in an interview with Relias Media.² He added that “poor handoffs may also result in nursing overtime.” 

Inefficient patient handoffs can lead to any number of issues, including:  

• Repeat tests 
• Costly readmissions 
• Frustrated care teams 
• Inconsistent care delivery 
• Dissatisfied patients and family members 

How might inefficient patient handoffs cause costly readmissions? EKG results are often left out of transition communication between hospitals and subacute rehabilitation facilities. If a patient has an episode of chest pain, the receiving team could conduct an EKG on its own, but without prior results for comparison, the team can’t definitively rule out something dangerous. The receiving team is left to err on the side of patient safety and send the patient back to the hospital, resulting in a readmission. 

However, if an EKG result was included in the transition communication, the receiving team members can conduct an EKG, compare the results with the EKG performed at the hospital, and determine if there’s an emergent need for readmission or if the issue is something they can safely handle in their own facility. 

How To Make Patient Handoffs Safe and Effective 

Too often, nurses on the receiving care team will take care of a patient for whom they lack pertinent health data. 

Communication between the nurse and the receiving care team (or the patient’s family) must provide the new caregivers with the required information to anticipate the patient’s needs and make timely decisions.  

Implementing a comprehensive transition communication process makes conducting an effective handoff easier and safer. By following a set of communication guidelines, a nurse can elevate patient safety, avoid adverse events that lead to costly readmissions, and decrease patient anxiety during the transfer process. Nurse communication technology can also support the process. 

Technology for Nurse Communication 

A nurse’s role in patient handoffs is crucial for ensuring both safety and efficiency, but without a modern clinical communication solution, their job becomes much harder. Verbal reminders, phone calls, text messages, and paper notes won’t cut it—patient handoffs demand more than these unreliable communication methods. 

That’s where healthcare communication technology comes into play. Having a structured communication system in place supports the goal of the handoff by keeping all members of the care team (plus the patient’s family) informed. A good example of this is a nurse using embedded messaging within the EHR to share information with the receiving care team in a HIPAA-compliant fashion as a patient is moved through the handoff process. When a patient is going home, this can come in the form of patient engagement technology that simplifies patient-provider communication, making care instructions easy to follow. Both tools put essential handoff information at the caregiver’s fingertips, which saves time, reduces errors, and expedites the process.

Handoff Checklist for Nurses 

Be sure to include the following information in your verbal, written, or face-to-face care transition communications:

• Patient care instructions
• Treatment description 
• Medication history 
• Services received  
• Any recent or anticipated changes 
• Patient’s name and age 
• Reason for admission and pertinent comorbidities 
• Code status 
• Current isolation or precautions 
• Elopement risk 
• Lab results, including pending and/or abnormal findings  
• Relevant diagnostic studies 
• Any assessment findings that are appropriate to the patient’s current health 
• Fall risk assessment 
• Your personal assessment and recommendations 

Equip nurses with a simple, easy-to-follow checklist that makes patient handoffs easier and safer. Download the printer-friendly version below for future use. Plus, check out this guide on how to choose a nursing communication platform, or see this blog on the top smartphones for nurse communication.

Sources

1. Communication During Patient Hand-Overs, The Joint Commission: https://shorturl.at/fKNC3
2. Handoffs Shown to Improve Patient Safety, Relias Media: https://shorturl.at/ItQW8