Impact of customised ICU handover protocol on the quality of ICU discharge reports

The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the impact of implementing a handover protocol, based on a standardised mnemonic tool specific for a cardiovascular intensive care unit (ICU), on the quality of information transferred during ICU discharge.

In this prospective pre-post study, we evaluated the implementation of an ICU discharge handover protocol in 168 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The primary outcome was the quality of the information. In the preintervention phase, 84 ICU standard discharge reports were evaluated. During the intervention period, a new handover protocol which included a written discharge report based on the I-PASS (illness severity, patient summary, action list, situation awareness and contingency plans, and synthesis by receiver) mnemonic tool was implemented. After the intervention, 84 new reports were assessed. The reports were evaluated by the ward physicians and by an external independent examiner using a standardised questionnaire. ICU discharge time and postoperative length of stay were also analysed.

The overall quality of the reports was evaluated as 'completely understood' by the ward physicians in 17 patients (21%) in the preintervention phase compared with 45 patients (54.9%) in the postintervention phase (p<0.001). The independent examiner classified one report (1.2% of the total number) as 'excellent' in the preintervention phase and 30 (35.7%) in the postintervention phase (p<0.001). After protocol implementation, patients were released from the ICU 58 min later (p<0.001). There was no difference in the length of postoperative hospital stay.

Implementation of a customised handover protocol when discharging patients from the ICU was associated with improvement in the quality of the information transferred but also with ICU discharge occurring at a later time of day.