A Model for a Standardized and Sustainable Pediatric Anesthesia-Intensive Care Unit Hand-Off Process

The hand-off process between pediatric anesthesia and intensive care unit (ICU) teams involves the exchange of patient health information and plays a major role in reducing errors and increasing staff satisfaction. Our objectives were to (1) standardize the hand-off process in children's ICUs, and (2) evaluate the provider satisfaction, efficiency and sustainability of the improved hand-off process.

Following multidisciplinary discussions, the hand-off process was standardized for transfers of care between anesthesia-ICU teams. A pre-implementation and two post-implementation (6 months, >2 years) staff satisfaction surveys and audits were conducted to evaluate the success, quality and sustainability of the hand-off process.

There was no difference in the time spent during the sign out process following standardization-median 5 min for pre-implementation versus 5 and 6 min for post-implementation at six months and >2 years, respectively. There was a significant decrease in the number of missed items (airway/ventilation, venous access, medications, and laboratory values pertinent events) post-implementation compared to pre-implementation (p ≤ 0.001). In the >2 years follow-up survey, 49.2% of providers felt that the hand-off could be improved versus 78.4% in pre-implementation and 54.2% in the six-month survey (p < 0.001).

A standardized interactive hand-off improves the efficiency and staff satisfaction, with a decreased rate of missed information at the cost of no additional time.