Back to Basics: Patient Care Transitions

Abstract

One of the most critical aspects of high-quality patient care is communication. If a breakdown in communication occurs, vital patient information may be overlooked and not communicated at the patient hand over. Breakdowns in communication contribute to a majority of errors in health care. Implementing a standardized hand-over protocol serves to improve the safety and reliability of this process and help decrease the risk of patient harm. This Back to Basics article highlights the steps to a successful hand over and provides strategies for developing an effective standardized communication process to reduce health care errors.

Keywords: SWITCH tool; hand offs; hand overs; health care communication; patient transitions.