Improving surgical weekend handover

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Patient Safety
• Surgical Workflow Optimization

Background:

• Effective patient handovers are crucial for patient safety and continuity of care in surgical settings.
• The existing system at Great Western Hospital (GWH) for surgical handovers was fragmented, leading to inefficiencies.
• National bodies like the GMC emphasize the importance of robust handover procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of surgical patient handovers, particularly for weekend ward rounds.
• To reduce the time spent searching for patient information and specific jobs.
• To streamline the process of patient review and care coordination during weekends.

Main Methods:

• Introduction of a unified weekend list that orders all surgical patients by ward and bed number.
• Design of a new weekday list to align with the weekend list format, facilitating information transfer.
• Implementation of a color-coding system to highlight specific jobs and tasks.

Main Results:

• Patient satisfaction with the handover system increased dramatically from 7.1% to 85.7% post-intervention.
• Locating patients and identifying jobs became significantly easier for the on-call teams.
• Weekend ward rounds were conducted in a more logical and timely manner, improving efficiency.

Conclusions:

• The unified weekend surgical handover list is a promising intervention for enhancing patient safety and care continuity.
• The streamlined process facilitates more efficient weekend ward rounds and consultant oversight.
• This improvement project demonstrates a successful strategy for optimizing surgical handover processes.