Quality patient handoffs are crucial to patient safety. They can be improved by expanding the scope of a handoff to include discharge, says Karen Curtiss, BCPA, founder and executive director of The Care Partner Project in Chicago. Ideally, this handoff will be from hospital staff to the patient’s personal support staff.
Hospitals can proactively ensure every patient is discharged with someone who is prepared to help the patient recover at home, or prepared to find others who can and will.
“Expand the scope of what is considered the care team to include patients and their personal ‘care partners,’ usually family and friends,” Curtiss advises. “They usually are referred to as advocates, but that’s a loaded term. We use the more accurate term to encompass all the many ways patients need help.”
Meaningfully include the patient and their care partner in handoffs, Curtiss suggests. Most mnemonics for handoff communications, such as SBAR and I-PASS, do not focus enough on the patient voice so patient goals, concerns, and questions are inadequately addressed.
“Physician goals are front and center. They are important, but what about the patient’s goals?” Curtiss asks. “Not only would their inclusion be an opportunity to increase HCAHPS [Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems] scores by supporting good communication and preventing missed expectations, but patients hold a wealth of information that may not be included on their medical records that could impact care.”
Encourage patient care partners to participate in every handoff conversation, Curtiss says. When necessary, they can stand in to express the patient’s voice and relay the physicians’ handoff information to patients.
“This extra layer of communication is exactly what’s needed for the Swiss cheese of care,” she says. “Modifying the mnemonic or creating new [terms] would institutionalize this norm, but it’s ultimate success rests on the ability or willingness of medical professionals to speak in lay terms.”
Not every family member or friend a patient may choose is equipped to be a care partner, Curtiss notes. TheCarePartnerProject.org provides training that can help.
SOURCE
- Karen Curtiss, BCPA, Founder and Executive Director, The Care Partner Project, Chicago. Phone: (847) 208-6074. Email: [email protected].
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