Changes in written sign-out composition across hospitalization

Inaccurate or incomplete information in the written portion of the patient handoff, or sign-out, may be associated with adverse events in hospitalized patients. Little is known about what information providers actually include in written sign-out documents and how sign-outs change over time.

(1) Provide a descriptive analysis of initial and subsequent hospital day-written sign-out content, and (2) evaluate the relationship between team workload and sign-out composition.

Retrospective review of sign-out documents from a larger observational study of general medicine patients admitted to housestaff and hospitalist teams at 3 hospitals.

The presence of 13 components of a high-quality sign-out. We performed descriptive analyses and compared initial and subsequent day sign-outs for content.

We reviewed 200 patient hospitalizations (200 initial handoffs, 580 subsequent day handoffs). Initial sign-out entries contained a mean of 7.54 (standard deviation: 2.27) key sign-out components. Subsequent day sign-outs contained a higher percentage of certain key elements but had more vague language. The number of elements present in the sign-out was reduced as patient census increased (r = -0.295, P < 0.01).

Sign-out composition changes over time, and is associated with workload. Future interventions to improve quality should take these factors into consideration.