NCT04514601

A Quality Improvement Project to Assess and Refine the Handover Process at Morning Trauma Meetings

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 317 (actual)
• Sponsor: Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This project was intended to observe the handover of trauma and orthopaedic patients at a district general hospital in the UK. Following the implementation of a standard operating protocol, the handover of patient information improved including neck of femur fracture patients significantly. The study can therefore be utilised by other similarly structured departments to improve the handover process, thereby improving patient safety.

Detailed description

Poor handover and inadequate transmission of clinical information between shifts can result in patient harm. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of implementing a handover protocol on the quality of information exchanged in the trauma handover meetings in a UK hospital. A prospective single centre observational study was performed at an acute NHS trust, using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) methodology. Ten consecutive weekday trauma meetings, involving 43 patients, were observed to identify poor practices in handover. This data was used in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeon's recommendations for effective handover (2007) to create a standard operating protocol (SOP). Following the implementation of the SOP, a further 8 consecutive weekday trauma meetings, involving a further 47 patients, were observed. The data collection was performed by 5 trained independent observers. The data was analysed using t test for quantitative variables and chi-square or Fisher's exact tests for categorical variables.

Conditions

• Neck of Femur Fracture
• Fractures, Bone
• Orthopedic Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Standard Operating Protocol	This was a written protocol on how the handover process should be conducted.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-10-23
• Primary completion: 2019-12-13
• Completion: 2019-12-13
• First posted: 2020-08-17
• Last updated: 2020-08-17

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom