Implementation of an emergency department sign-out checklist improves transfer of information at shift change

Transitions of care are ubiquitous in the emergency department (ED) and inevitably introduce the opportunity for errors. Few emergency medicine residency programs provide formal training or a standard process for patient handoffs. Checklists have been shown to be effective quality-improvement measures in inpatient settings and may be a feasible method to improve ED handoffs.

To determine if the use of a sign-out checklist improves the accuracy and efficiency of resident sign-out in the ED.

A prospective pre-/postinterventional study of residents rotating in the ED at a tertiary academic medical center. Trained research assistants observed resident sign-out during shift change over a 2-week period and completed a data collection tool to indicate whether or not key components of sign-out occurred and time to sign out each patient. An electronic sign-out checklist was implemented using a multi-faceted educational effort. A 2-week postintervention observation phase was conducted. Proportions, means, and nonparametric comparison tests were calculated using STATA.

One hundred fifteen sign-outs were observed prior to checklist implementation and 114 were observed after. Significant improvements were seen in four sign-out components: reporting of history of present illness increased from 81% to 99%, ED course increased from 75% to 86%, likely diagnosis increased from 60% to 77%, and team awareness of plan increased from 21% to 41%. Use of the repeat-back technique decreased from 13% to 5% after checklist implementation and time to sign-out showed no significant change.

Implementation of a checklist improved the transfer of information without increasing time to sign-out.