Improving availability and accuracy of the junior doctors' on-call handover through digitalisation

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Quality Improvement in Medicine
• Clinical Communication

Background:

• Clinical handovers are vital for transferring patient information between healthcare teams.
• An informal email-based handover system was unreliable and lacked robustness.
• Junior doctors identified the need for a more effective handover process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve the reliability and robustness of clinical handovers.
• To enhance the prioritization and follow-up of patient tasks by the day team.
• To implement and evaluate a quality improvement initiative for handover processes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized quality improvement (QI) methods: process mapping, PDSA cycles, driver diagrams, and run charts.
• Transitioned from a Word document to a centralized Excel spreadsheet on MS Teams.
• Introduced structured columns for key patient information and assigned clear responsibility for circulation.

Main Results:

• The percentage of appropriately sent handovers increased from 80% to 100%.
• Availability of visible handover data on MS Teams rose from 80% to 100%.
• The new system was evaluated as safe, effective, and user-friendly.

Conclusions:

• A structured, electronic handover system significantly enhances communication and task management in clinical settings.
• Quality improvement methodologies are effective in optimizing healthcare processes.
• The successful handover system has been replicated in other hospitals.