eHand-offs: An IBM Lotus Domino application for ensuring patient safety and enhancing resident supervision in...

Reliable communication of patient information among physicians during shift changes is an important patient safety parameter. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations [JCAHO] recognized the pitfalls in hand off communications by including standardized hand-offs as a National Patient Safety Goals. We are presenting an electronic application called eHand-offs to address this problem in our residency program. Residents can use this application to hand-off patient information during admissions, transfers, and discharges. eHand-offs also functions as a surveillance tool for administrators to track patient hand offs, ensuring added patient safety and enhancing resident supervision and training.