Using SBAR communications in efforts to prevent patient rehospitalizations

Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) communication has become the standard for communicating across disciplines. It has demonstrated its effectiveness at improving patient outcomes, enhancing patient and clinician satisfaction, and helping to control healthcare costs. It can help home healthcare clinicians with efforts to prevent avoidable hospitalizations. But how often and how well do home health clinicians use this method of shared communications with physicians? This article explores why communication between physicians and home health clinicians can be so problematic. It introduces the SBAR communication method, its origins, its features, and some of the published evidence that it provides effective and efficient communication, thereby promoting better patient outcomes.