Improved Patient Handoffs to Prevent Sentinel Events

November 23, 2016 updated by: Duke University

Patient Acuity Score With Improved Patient Handoffs to Prevent Sentinel Events

The overall aim of this project is to improve the quality of the handoffs between hospitalists on the general medicine service at Durham Regional Hospital with the intent of improving transitions of care. The intervention will be an improved and more structured face to face sign-out process using a standardized admission sign-out sheet, which is not part of the official medical record. Daytime admitting physicians will assign an acuity score to their patients in which the severity of illness will be scored from 1-7, with 7 being the most sick / likely to have rapid response team (RRT) or adverse event. The assignment of this score would be based off of the clinician's judgment in the patient's overall assessment. All patients, age >18 years, admitted to the non-resident hospital medicine general medicine service at DRH will be study eligible. Data analysis will examine aggregate hospitalist perception of sign-out practice before and after intervention, total number of RRTs, unplanned transfers, and rapid responses pre and post intervention, percentage of hospitalist based patients of overall rapid responses pre and post intervention, percentage of hospitalists using acuity scores, and average and mean severity score of patients with rapid responses compared with those admitted. Patients have a risk of loss of confidentiality.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

4344

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

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27704
        • Durham Regional 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

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • patients age >18 years
  • admitted to the non-resident hospital medicine general medicine service at Durham Regional Hospital (DRH). (This would include transfers from outside hospital, the Emergency Room, intensive care units, and the Durham Rehab Institute.)
  • Additionally, hospital medicine faculty who round on the non-resident general medicine service at DRH will be included for the purposes of completion of perception surveys.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients presenting for consults, rapid responses handled by surgical services and rapid responses as reason for transfer from Durham Rehabilitation Institute.

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: NA
  • Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
  • Masking: NONE

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Comparison of RRT's and unplanned transfers pre and post intervention matching aggregate numbers month to month
Time Frame: End of Study, Approximately 6 months
End of Study, Approximately 6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Physician attitudes towards sign-out process pre and post intervention
Time Frame: End of Study, Approximately 6 months
End of Study, Approximately 6 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Compliance rate monthly with sign-out sheet completion; will use simple descriptive statistics
Time Frame: End of Study, Approximately 6 months
End of Study, Approximately 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Duke University

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

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

January 1, 2014

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

January 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 14, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 15, 2013

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

May 16, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

November 25, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 23, 2016

Last Verified

April 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00044212

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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