Quality Improvement in Handover of General Internal Medicine In-patients

January 14, 2016 updated by: University of British Columbia

Miscommunication during patient handover can jeopardize patient safety and is the focus of Quality Improvement initiatives by many organizations. It is widely recognized that such miscommunication is preventable using a number of strategies identified in the literature.

Currently, there is no formal handover process of General Internal Medicine in-patients, otherwise known as the Clinical Teaching Unit (CTU) at Vancouver General Hospital, which is a major patient safety concern. This project will implement a formal handover program and evaluate whether there are changes in resident satisfaction with handover, but more importantly, whether the investigators can improve patient outcomes.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1168

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • British Columbia
      • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5Z 1M9
        • Vancouver General Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Residents, medical students, and patients
  • Residents and medical students will be any rotating through General Internal Medicine at Vancouver General Hospital
  • Patients will be any admitted to General Internal Medicine and cared for during on-call hours (defined as 18:00 - 07:00)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None for residents and medical students
  • Patients who are not being cared for during on-call hours (defined as 18:00 - 07:00)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Handover program
Standardized handover program Dedicated place and time Template Face-to-face communication Evidence-based education session Feedback and audit
Other: Handover program
No Intervention: Usual handover practice

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Proportion of patients handed over to the on-call resident/Clinical Associate (CA)
Time Frame: 5 months
5 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Proportion of patients the resident on-call did not receive information on that would have been useful
Time Frame: 5 months
5 months
Frequency of patients transferred to the ICU
Time Frame: 5 months
5 months
Frequency of patients referred to the Critical Care Outreach Team
Time Frame: 5 months
5 months
Frequency of inappropriate code blue calls for patients with a "do not resuscitate" order
Time Frame: 5 months
5 months
Aggregate length of stay of patients admitted to the Clinical Teaching Unit
Time Frame: 5 months
5 months
Aggregate rate of death of patients admitted to the Clinical Teaching Unit
Time Frame: 5 months
5 months
Resource Utilization for patients assessed by the resident on-call overnight
Time Frame: 5 months
Resource utilization will be defined by the ordering of: radiological imaging, blood work, electrocardiogram, blood transfusions, IV fluid administration, and antibiotics.
5 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of British Columbia

Collaborators

Canadian Medical Protective Association

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Penny Tam, BSc, MD, Vancouver General Hospital

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 14, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 21, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

February 22, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 15, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2016

Last Verified

January 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H11-03542

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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