Standardization of Pediatric Interfacility Transport Handover: Measuring the Development of a Shared Mental Model

To determine if standardization of pediatric interfacility transport handover is associated with the development of a prototypical shared mental model between healthcare providers.

A single center, prepost, retrospective cohort study.

A 259-bed, tertiary care, pediatric referral center.

Children 0 to 18 years old transferred to our critical care units or emergency center from October 2016 to February 2017.

Standardization of interfacility handover using a multidisciplinary checklist, didactic teaching, and simulation conducted midway through the study period.

The primary outcome was a shared mental model index defined as percent congruence among handover participants regarding key patient healthcare data including patient identification, diagnoses, transport interventions, immediate postadmission care plans, and anticipatory guidance for ongoing care. Secondary outcomes were handover comprehensiveness and teaming metrics such as efficiency, attendance, interruption frequency, and team member inclusion. During the study period, 100 transport handovers were observed of which 50 were preintervention and 50 post. A majority of handovers represented transfers to the emergency center (41%) or PICU (45%). There were no observable differences between prepost intervention cohorts by general characteristics, admission diagnoses, or severity of illness metrics including Pediatric Index of Mortality-3-Risk of Mortality, length of stay, mortality, frequency of invasive and noninvasive ventilation, and vasoactive use. The shared mental model index increased from 38% to 78% following standardization of handover. Attendance (76% vs 94%), punctuality (91.5% vs 98%), attention (82% vs 92%), summarization (42% vs 72%), and provision of anticipatory guidance (42% vs 58%) also improved. Efficiency was unchanged with a mean handover duration of 4 minutes in both cohorts.

Considerable enhancements in handover quality, team participation, and the development of a shared mental model after standardization of interfacility transport handover were noted. These findings were achieved without compromising handover efficiency.