AHRQ Patient Safety Network ► Association of face-to-face handoffs and outcomes of hospitalized internal medicine patients.

AHRQ Patient Safety Network





Association of face-to-face handoffs and outcomes of hospitalized internal medicine patients.

Schouten WM, Burton CM, Jones LD, Newman J, Kashiwagi DT. J Hosp Med. 2015;10:137-141.

This observational study compared face-to-face handoffs—the gold standard—with written handoffs and found no difference in escalation of care, length of stay, hospital mortality, or adverse events as defined by the Global Trigger Tool. These results challenge the current recommendations about handoffs, but larger broader studies are needed to determine the optimal handoff strategy.

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