Can SBAR be implemented with high fidelity and does it improve communication between healthcare workers? A systematic review.

Lisha Lo; Leahora Rotteau; Kaveh G. Shojania

Review

Can SBAR be implemented with high fidelity and does it improve communication between healthcare workers? A systematic review.

January 12, 2022

Lo L, Rotteau L, Shojania KG. BMJ Open. 2021;11(12):e055247.

View more articles from the same authors.

Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) is a mnemonic technique used to avoid communication failures during handoffs. This systematic review found that fidelity with SBAR is highest in classroom settings, but that studies in clinical contexts either did not achieve sufficient improvements in fidelity or did not assess fidelity.

PubMed citation

Free full text

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Striving for high reliability in healthcare: a qualitative study of the implementation of a hospital safety programme.

June 22, 2022

Putting out fires: a qualitative study exploring the use of patient complaints to drive improvement at three academic hospitals.

July 10, 2019

Looking back on the history of patient safety: an opportunity to reflect and ponder future challenges.

November 3, 2021

Impact of the communication and patient hand-off tool SBAR on patient safety: a systematic review.

November 28, 2018

Patient safety in inpatient mental health settings: a systematic review.

February 5, 2020

'I think we should just listen and get out': a qualitative exploration of views and experiences of Patient Safety Walkrounds.

March 12, 2014

Impact of unacceptable behaviour between healthcare workers on clinical performance and patient outcomes: a systematic review.

February 16, 2022

Recommendations for the safety of hospitalised patients in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review.

October 5, 2022

Checklists to reduce diagnostic error: a systematic review of the literature using a human factors framework.

June 1, 2022

Exploring patient safety outcomes for people with learning disabilities in acute hospital settings: a scoping review.

June 30, 2021

Predictors of response rates of safety culture questionnaires in healthcare: a systematic review and analysis.

October 26, 2022

Dimensions of safety culture: a systematic review of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods for assessing safety culture in hospitals.

September 1, 2021

Incident reporting systems: what will it take to make them less frustrating and achieve anything useful?

December 1, 2021

Temporal trends in patient safety in the Netherlands: reductions in preventable adverse events or the end of adverse events as a useful metric?

August 5, 2015

Measuring safety in older adult care homes: a scoping review of the international literature.

May 19, 2021

Towards safer healthcare: qualitative insights from a process view of organisational learning from failure.

August 25, 2021

Adverse event reviews in healthcare: what matters to patients and their family? A qualitative study exploring the perspective of patients and family.

June 1, 2022

Medication reconciliation during transitions of care as a patient safety strategy: a systematic review.

March 20, 2013

Responses of physicians to an objective safety and quality knowledge test: a cross-sectional study.

October 6, 2021

Sustaining improvement of hospital-wide initiative for patient safety and quality: a systematic scoping review.

February 1, 2023

Role of the regulator in enabling a just culture: a qualitative study in mental health and hospital care.

August 10, 2022

Exploration of prescribing error reporting across primary care: a qualitative study.

April 13, 2022

Prioritising recommendations following analyses of adverse events in healthcare: a systematic review.

November 4, 2020

Cohort study of diagnostic delay in the clinical pathway of patients with chronic wounds in the primary care setting.

December 14, 2022

Suicide as an incident of severe patient harm: a retrospective cohort study of investigations after suicide in Swedish healthcare in a 13-year perspective.

March 31, 2021

'It's all about patient safety': an ethnographic study of how pharmacy staff construct medicines safety in the context of polypharmacy.

March 10, 2021

How do patients respond to safety problems in ambulatory care? Results of a retrospective cross-sectional telephone survey.

December 1, 2021

Economic evaluation of quality improvement interventions to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections in the hospital setting: a systematic review.

March 30, 2022

Quality standards for safe medication in nursing homes: development through a multistep approach including a Delphi consensus study.

October 27, 2021

STARD 2015 guidelines for reporting diagnostic accuracy studies: explanation and elaboration.

October 14, 2016

Eliciting willingness-to-pay to prevent hospital medication administration errors in the UK: a contingent valuation survey.

February 16, 2022

Exploring the factors that promote or diminish a psychologically safe environment: a qualitative interview study with critical care staff.

September 22, 2021

A qualitative analysis of physician perspectives on missed and delayed outpatient diagnosis: the focus on system-related factors.

September 24, 2014

Trainee perceptions of resident duty hour restrictions: a qualitative study of online discussion forums.

October 19, 2022

Instruments for measuring patient safety competencies in nursing: a scoping review.

June 15, 2022

Incidence, duration and risk factors associated with delayed and missed diagnostic opportunities related to tuberculosis: a population-based longitudinal study.

March 24, 2021

Impact of full personal protective equipment on alertness of healthcare workers: a prospective study.

February 2, 2022

Vulnerability of the medical product supply chain: the wake-up call of COVID-19.

November 25, 2020

Safe opioid prescribing: a prognostic machine learning approach to predicting 30-day risk after an opioid dispensation in Alberta, Canada.

June 16, 2021

NHS ‘Learning from Deaths’ reports: a qualitative and quantitative document analysis of the first year of a countrywide patient safety programme.

July 21, 2021

Effects of interorganisational information technology networks on patient safety: a realist synthesis.

December 9, 2020

Effect of the surgical safety checklist on provider and patient outcomes: a systematic review.

April 27, 2022

Effects of rapid response systems on clinical outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis.

January 2, 2008

Unacceptable behaviours between healthcare workers: just the tip of the patient safety iceberg.

June 15, 2022

Systems approach to health service design, delivery and improvement: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

February 3, 2021

Systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions for operating room to intensive care unit handoffs.

March 10, 2021

Measuring psychological safety and local learning to enable high reliability organisational change.

November 9, 2022

Surgical safety checklist audits may be misleading! Improving the implementation and adherence of the surgical safety checklist: a quality improvement project.

December 22, 2021

Assessing quality of older persons' emergency transitions between long-term and acute care settings: a proof-of-concept study.

May 18, 2022

Safe clinical practice for patients hospitalised in mental health wards during a suicidal crisis: qualitative study of patient experiences.

December 23, 2020

Patients' perceptions of safety in emergency medical services: an interview study.

December 2, 2020

Interventions targeted at reducing diagnostic error: systematic review.

September 8, 2021

Documenting the indication for antimicrobial prescribing: a scoping review.

November 2, 2022

Evaluation of clinical practice guidelines on fall prevention and management for older adults: a systematic review.

January 12, 2022

Indicators for implementation outcome monitoring of reporting and learning systems in hospitals: an underestimated need for patient safety.

May 4, 2022

Using human factors and ergonomics principles to prevent inpatient falls.

April 20, 2022

Making communication and resolution programmes mission critical in healthcare organisations.

November 11, 2020

Patient feedback for safety improvement in primary care: results from a feasibility study.

July 29, 2020

Heatwaves, hospitals and health system resilience in England: a qualitative assessment of frontline perspectives from the hot summer of 2019.

March 22, 2023

Use of FMEA analysis to reduce risk of errors in prescribing and administering drugs in paediatric wards: a quality improvement report.

January 16, 2013

Diagnostic errors in the intensive care unit: a systematic review of autopsy studies.

August 8, 2012

Psychological impact and recovery after involvement in a patient safety incident: a repeated measures analysis.

September 21, 2016

Reaching the summit of discharge summaries: a quality improvement project.

March 3, 2021

Higher incidence of adverse events in isolated patients compared with non-isolated patients: a cohort study.

November 18, 2020

Association of clinician diagnostic performance with machine learning–based decision support systems: a systematic review.

April 14, 2021

Ensuring successful implementation of communication-and-resolution programmes.

March 18, 2020

The effectiveness of improving healthcare teams' human factor skills using simulation-based training: a systematic review.

August 3, 2022

Therapeutic duplication on the general surgical wards.

October 13, 2021

Action on patient safety can reduce health inequalities.

April 13, 2022

Healthcare professionals' perception of safety culture and the Operating Room (OR) Black Box technology before clinical implementation: a cross-sectional survey.

March 22, 2023

Incidence, nature and causes of avoidable significant harm in primary care in England: retrospective case note review.

December 16, 2020

Use of artificial intelligence for image analysis in breast cancer screening programmes: systematic review of test accuracy.

November 17, 2021

Safety cases for digital health innovations: can they work?

July 14, 2021

Early prescribing outcomes after exporting the EQUIPPED medication safety improvement programme.

January 19, 2022

Explaining the negative effects of patient participation in patient safety: an exploratory qualitative study in an academic tertiary healthcare centre in the Netherlands.

February 1, 2023

Unintended consequences: quantifying the benefits, iatrogenic harms and downstream cascade costs of musculoskeletal MRI in UK primary care.

August 11, 2021

Predictors and outcomes of patient safety culture: a cross-sectional comparative study.

July 27, 2022

Effects of CPOE-based medication ordering on outcomes: an overview of systematic reviews.

July 8, 2020

Implementing high-reliability organization principles into practice: a rapid evidence review.

November 11, 2020

Concerns regarding tablet splitting: a systematic review.

December 7, 2022

Comparison of health care worker satisfaction before vs after implementation of a communication and optimal resolution program in acute care hospitals.

April 5, 2023

Moving beyond the weekend effect: how can we best target interventions to improve patient care?

June 30, 2021

The elephant of patient safety: what you see depends on how you look.

August 25, 2010

Deaths due to medical error: jumbo jets or just small propeller planes?

August 8, 2012

The frustrating case of incident-reporting systems.

May 20, 2009

February 2, 2022

Impact of providing patients access to electronic health records on quality and safety of care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

July 8, 2020

Better understanding the downsides of low value healthcare could reduce harm.

April 21, 2021

Identifying and encouraging high-quality healthcare: an analysis of the content and aims of patient letters of compliment.

August 5, 2020

Peers without fears? Barriers to effective communication among primary care physicians and oncologists about diagnostic delays in cancer.

November 1, 2017

High-fidelity simulation’s impact on clinical reasoning and patient safety: a scoping review.

March 29, 2023

Support for healthcare workers and patients after medical error through mutual healing: another step towards patient safety.

January 18, 2023

Healthcare worker serious safety events: applying concepts from patient safety to improve healthcare worker safety.

August 4, 2021

Systems engineering analysis of diagnostic referral closed-loop processes.

March 9, 2022

Relationships between comprehensive characteristics of nurse work schedules and adverse patient outcomes: a systematic literature review.

March 24, 2021

The impact of drug error reduction software on preventing harmful adverse drug events in England: a retrospective database study.

August 24, 2022

The association between health care staff engagement and patient safety outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

February 3, 2021

Factors influencing physician responsiveness to nurse-initiated communication: a qualitative study.

December 2, 2020

Associations between stopping prescriptions for opioids, length of opioid treatment, and overdose or suicide deaths in US veterans: observational evaluation.

April 1, 2020

Severe illness getting noticed sooner - SIGNS-for-Kids: developing an illness recognition tool to connect home and hospital.

January 15, 2020

Related Resources

Challenge Competition: Impact of Patient Safety Tools.

December 12, 2023

A scoping review of clinical handover mnemonic devices.

October 18, 2023

WebM&M Cases

A Double “Never Event”: Wrong Patient and Wrong Side.

September 27, 2023

Patient handoffs and multi-specialty trainee perspectives across an institution: informing recommendations for health systems and an expanded conceptual framework for handoffs.

August 23, 2023

An integrative systematic review of employee silence and voice in healthcare: what are we really measuring.

June 28, 2023

Diagnostic Safety Across Transitions of Care Throughout the Healthcare System: Current State and a Call to Action.

June 28, 2023

Requirements for implementing a 'just culture' within healthcare organisations: an integrative review.

June 21, 2023

Patient safety perception within hospitals: an examination of job type, handoffs and information exchange, and hospital management support.

June 21, 2023

Perioperative handoff enhancement opportunities through technology and artificial intelligence: a narrative review.

June 14, 2023

WebM&M Cases

Home Medications Contribute to a Unique Opportunity for Error on Discharge from the Hospital.

June 14, 2023

Patient Safety Innovations

Remote Response Team and Customized Alert Settings Help Improve Management of Sepsis

May 31, 2023

Learning from errors and resilience.

May 24, 2023

The association between patient safety culture and adverse events - a scoping review.

May 17, 2023

Effects of a multimodal transitional care intervention in patients at high risk of readmission: the TARGET-READ randomized clinical trial.

May 17, 2023

Individual characteristics that promote or prevent psychological safety and error reporting in healthcare: a systematic review.

May 10, 2023

Annual Perspective

Improving Diagnostic Safety and Quality

April 26, 2023

Interview

In Conversation with... Susan McGrath, PhD and George Blike, MD about Surveillance Monitoring

April 26, 2023

Perspective

Surveillance Monitoring to Improve Patient Safety in Acute Hospital Care Units

April 26, 2023

Economic evaluations of interventions to prevent and control health-care-associated infections: a systematic review.

April 26, 2023

Effect of patient safety education interventions on patient safety culture of health care professionals: systematic review and meta-analysis.

March 29, 2023

Errors in medicine: punishment versus learning medical adverse events revisited - expanding the frame.

March 29, 2023

The value of learning from near misses to improve patient safety: a scoping review.

January 25, 2023

Addressing patient safety hazards using critical incident reporting in hospitals: a systematic review.

January 18, 2023

Interventions into reliability-seeking health care organizations: a systematic review of their goals and measuring methods.

November 30, 2022

Scientific view of the global literature on medical error reporting and reporting systems from 1977 to 2021: a bibliometric analysis.

November 16, 2022

Designing safety interventions for specific contexts: results from a literature review.

October 26, 2022

Patient and family involvement in serious incident investigations from the perspectives of key stakeholders: a review of the qualitative evidence.

August 17, 2022

Preferences and perceptions of medical error disclosure among marginalized populations: a narrative review.

August 10, 2022

A scoping review of real-time automated clinical deterioration alerts and evidence of impacts on hospitalised patient outcomes.

August 3, 2022

Support methods for healthcare professionals who are second victims: an integrative review.

July 27, 2022

See More About The Topic

Hospitals

Quality and Safety Professionals

Medicine

Nurse Care

Discontinuities, Gaps, and Hand-Off Problems

Can SBAR be implemented with high fidelity and does it improve communication between healthcare workers? A systematic review.

Remote Response Team and Customized Alert Settings Help Improve Management of Sepsis

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Can SBAR be implemented with high fidelity and does it improve communication between healthcare workers? A systematic review.

Remote Response Team and Customized Alert Settings Help Improve Management of Sepsis

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue logged in

New Users to the PSNet site