BACKGROUND: The substantial adverse impact of miscommunication during transitions in care has highlighted the importance of teaching proper patient handoff practices. Although handoff standardization has been suggested, a universal system has been difficult to adopt, given the unique characteristics of the different fields of medicine. A form of standardization that has emerged is a discipline-specific handoff mnemonic: a memory aid that can serve to assist a provider in communicating pertinent information to the succeeding treatment team. A pilot study was conducted in which psychiatry residents were taught a mnemonic to use during their post-call patient handoffs.
METHODS: The PSYCH mnemonic was introduced as a guide to help residents identify key information needed in a psychiatric emergency room handoff: Patient information/ background, S ituation leading to the hospital visit, Y our assessment, Critical information, and Hindrance to discharge. Resident post-call patient handoffs were voice recorded and transcribed for 12 weeks. The transcriptions were divided into three time periods: Time 1 (baseline resident handoff performance), Time 2 (natural progression in resident hand-off performance with experience), and Time 3 (resident handoff performance after training in use of the PSYCH mnemonic).
RESULTS: There was a statistically significant decrease in the mean number of omissions after the intervention (p = 0.049). The decrease in time spent on handoffs after the intervention was not statistically significant. On the basis of a rating scale ranging from 1 (not clear) to 4 (very clear), the residents' rating of their clarity of expectations increased from a mean of 2.79 to 3.83, and their confidence rating increased from a mean of 2.57 to 3.42.
CONCLUSION: The mnemonic helped decrease the residents' handoff omissions. It also helped improve their efficiency, clarity of expectation, and confidence during handoffs.
}, year = {2016}, journal = {Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf}, volume = {42}, pages = {316-320}, month = {07/2016}, issn = {1553-7250}, language = {eng}, }