Safety gaps in medical team communication: closing the loop on quality improvement efforts in the cardiac catheterization lab.
Closed loop communication (CLC) ensures a clear transfer of information by having the recipient repeat the order for verification. In this study, procedures in the cardiac catheterization lab were observed to assess the frequency and accuracy of CLC. Despite three interventions over five years (education, on-going feedback, accountability), CLC remained suboptimal, with both incomplete orders given and incomplete responses.