Cognitive support for a better handoff: does it improve the quality of medical communication at shift change in an emergency department?

in European Journal of Emergency Medicine (in press)

In order to improve the communication during shift handover in an emergency department, we observed the handover process and analysed the discourse between physicians at shift change first, then we ... [more ▼]

In order to improve the communication during shift handover in an emergency department, we observed the handover process and analysed the discourse between physicians at shift change first, then we created two cognitive tools and tested their clinical impact on the field. We used different measures to evaluate this impact on the health care process including frequency and type of information content communicated between physicians, duration of the handoff, physician self-evaluation of the quality of the handoff and a post-handover study of patient handling. Our results showed that the patient's medical history, significant tests results, recommendations (treatment plan) and patient follow-up were communicated to a greater extent when the tools are used. We also demonstrated that physicians spent more time at the bedside and less time consulting medical records using these tools. [less ▲]