Web-based handoff tool reduces medical-surgical errors

Editor's Note

Hospitals can avoid medical-surgical patient handoff errors by using a web-based handoff tool to improve communication among physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers, this study finds.

Of 5,407 patients included in the study, 77 errors were detected before implementation of the handoff tool versus 45 after implementation.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston built this tool in-house and has integrated it into its commercially produced electronic health record. 

This cohort study evaluates the effect of a web-based handoff tool on rates of medical errors in adult medical and surgical patients.