Information Transfer During Postoperative Handovers in the Post-anaesthesia Care Unit

Quality of Postoperative Patient Handover in the Post-anaesthesia Care Unit: A Prospective Analysis

Anaesthesiology plays a key role in promoting safe perioperative care. This includes the perioperative phase in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) where problems with incomplete information transfer may have a negative impact on patient safety and can lead to patient harm. The objective of this study is to analyse information transfer during postoperative handovers in the PACU.

With a self-developed checklist information transfer during postoperative handovers will be documented and subsequently compared with patient information in anaesthesia records.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Information Transfer During Postoperative Handovers

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 790

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Germany
  • Nordrhein-Westfalen
    • Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, 51109
      • Krankenhaus Köln-Merheim, Departement of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Adult patients who undergo surgery (general surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmic surgery, orthopaedics, plastic surgery, trauma surgery, thoracic surgery).

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All patients transferred to the PACU after surgery

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age < 18 years
• patients who have surgery under local anaesthesia or in standby
• patients who are transferred to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) after surgery

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Quantity of Information Loss during Postoperative Handovers in the PACU	Two months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Witten/Herdecke

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: October 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): December 1, 2011
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): December 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 21, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 25, 2013
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): November 1, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE): November 1, 2013
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 25, 2013
• Last Verified: October 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 108/2011 (OTHER: Ethikkommision der Universität Witten Herdecke)