Situation, background, assessment, recommendation (SBAR) communication tool for handoff in health care- a narrative review.

Shaneela Shahid; Sumesh Thomas

Review

Emerging Classic

Situation, background, assessment, recommendation (SBAR) communication tool for handoff in health care- a narrative review.

September 5, 2018

Shahid S, Thomas S. Saf Health. 2018;4(7).

View more articles from the same authors.

Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) is a mnemonic used to structure information sharing to avoid communication failures during handoffs. This review examines the challenges and benefits associated with SBAR use and provides a comparative assessment with other standardized communication tools in the field.

PubMed citation

Free full text

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Use of patient complaints to identify diagnosis-related safety concerns: a mixed-method evaluation.

March 3, 2021

Development and usability testing of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Common Formats to capture diagnostic safety events.

May 25, 2022

Creating a learning health system for improving diagnostic safety: pragmatic insights from US health care organizations.

June 22, 2022

Why test results are still getting "lost" to follow-up: a qualitative study of implementation gaps.

May 12, 2021

Race differences in reported "near miss" patient safety events in health care system high reliability organizations.

December 15, 2021

The effect of resident duty hour restriction on trauma center outcomes in teaching hospitals in the state of Pennsylvania.

September 29, 2010

Developing the Safer Dx Checklist of Ten Safety Recommendations for Health Care Organizations to address diagnostic errors.

October 12, 2022

Patient safety: where to aim when zero harm is not the target-a case for learning and resilience.

August 31, 2022

Research to improve diagnosis: time to study the real world.

January 26, 2022

Race differences in a malpractice event database in a large healthcare system.

March 1, 2023

Patient safety incidents describing patient falls in critical care in North West England between 2009 and 2017.

April 21, 2021

Speaking up about traditional and professionalism-related patient safety threats: a national survey of interns and residents.

May 10, 2017

Association of open communication and the emotional and behavioural impact of medical error on patients and families: state-wide cross-sectional survey.

February 12, 2020

Managing teamwork in the face of pandemic: evidence-based tips.

June 24, 2020

Application of electronic trigger tools to identify targets for improving diagnostic safety.

October 17, 2018

Learning from patient safety incidents involving acutely sick adults in hospital assessment units in England and Wales: a mixed methods analysis for quality improvement.

August 25, 2021

Theoretical approaches for investigating patient safety.

June 1, 2005

Combined proactive risk assessment: unifying proactive and reactive risk assessment techniques in health care.

June 29, 2022

Can patients contribute to enhancing the safety and effectiveness of test-result follow-up? Qualitative outcomes from a health consumer workshop.

June 2, 2021

Measures and measurement of high-performance work systems in health care settings: propositions for improvement.

February 9, 2011

The delivery of safe and effective test result communication, management and follow-up.

September 27, 2023

Speaking up about the dangers of the hidden curriculum.

January 22, 2014

Reducing errors through discharge medication reconciliation by pharmacy services.

August 26, 2015

Patient harm and institutional avoidability of out-of-hours discharge from intensive care: an analysis using mixed methods.

March 23, 2022

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

November 16, 2022

Ethical considerations and patient safety concerns for cancelling non-urgent surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review.

May 12, 2021

'Immunising' physicians against availability bias in diagnostic reasoning: a randomised controlled experiment.

March 18, 2020

Optimizing Pediatric Patient Safety in the Emergency Care Setting.

October 19, 2022

Key considerations in ensuring a safe regional telehealth care model: a systematic review.

May 26, 2021

The psychological experience of obstetric patients and health care workers after implementation of universal SARS-CoV-2 testing.

September 2, 2020

Implementing a robust process improvement program in the neonatal intensive care unit to reduce harm.

April 13, 2022

Frequency of diagnostic errors in the neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective cohort study.

March 23, 2022

Ten years of online incident reporting and learning using CPiRLS: implications for improved patient safety.

March 15, 2023

Bending the patient safety curve: how much can AI help?

February 1, 2023

Discontinuation of outpatient medications: implications for electronic messaging to pharmacies using CancelRx.

December 7, 2022

Safety culture: an integration of existing models and a framework for understanding its development.

March 17, 2021

Variation in electronic test results management and its implications for patient safety: a multisite investigation.

August 19, 2020

Who pays for medical errors? An analysis of adverse event costs, the medical liability system, and incentives for patient safety improvement.

February 6, 2008

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

March 10, 2021

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

July 8, 2020

Veterans Health Administration response to the COVID-19 crisis: surveillance to action.

October 26, 2022

Changes in weekend and weekday care quality of emergency medical admissions to 20 hospitals in England during implementation of the 7-day services national health policy.

November 25, 2020

Frequency and nature of medication errors and adverse drug events in mental health hospitals: a systematic review.

September 13, 2017

Adverse events and hospital-acquired conditions associated with potential low-value care in Medicare beneficiaries.

August 11, 2021

Diagnostic error experiences of patients and families with limited English-language health literacy or disadvantaged socioeconomic position in a cross-sectional US population-based survey.

February 16, 2022

Improving allergy documentation: a retrospective electronic health record system-wide patient safety initiative.

January 1, 2022

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

February 3, 2021

Bracing for the storm: one health care system's planning for the COVID-19 surge.

November 11, 2020

Supporting the emotional well-being of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 5, 2020

Effectiveness and safety of pulse oximetry in remote patient monitoring of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review.

April 20, 2022

Improving the specificity of drug-drug interaction alerts: can it be done?

April 6, 2022

Which adverse events and which drugs are implicated in drug-related hospital admissions? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

March 22, 2023

Crowding in the Emergency Department: Challenges for the Care of Children.

March 15, 2023

Association of opioid-related adverse drug events with clinical and cost outcomes among surgical patients in a large integrated health care delivery system.

June 20, 2018

Patient perspectives on the usefulness of an artificial intelligence-assisted symptom checker: cross-sectional survey study.

March 11, 2020

Patient safety culture: the impact on workplace violence and health worker burnout.

February 8, 2023

Patient misidentification events in the Veterans Health Administration: a comprehensive review in the context of high-reliability health care.

October 21, 2020

Master of Science in Healthcare Quality and Safety.

July 16, 2014

BMJ Quality & Safety.

March 6, 2005

To what extent is the World Health Organization's Medication Safety Challenge being addressed in English hospital organizations? A descriptive study.

February 16, 2022

Improving administration and documentation of enteral nutrition support therapy in a Veteran Affairs health care system: use of medication administration record and bar code scanning technology.

February 1, 2023

Electronic health record use issues and diagnostic error: a scoping review and framework.

January 25, 2023

Are the World Health Organization's patient safety learning objectives still up-to-date: a group concept mapping study.

December 21, 2022

Cybersecurity in health is an urgent patient safety concern: we can learn from existing patient safety improvement strategies to address it.

April 7, 2021

The effect of health care professional disruptive behavior on patient care: a systematic review.

February 24, 2021

Identifying health information technology usability issues contributing to medication errors across medication process stages.

July 7, 2021

A review of adverse event reports from emergency departments in the Veterans Health Administration.

March 18, 2020

Mature rapid response system and potentially avoidable cardiopulmonary arrests in hospital.

August 22, 2007

Psychometric properties of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: findings from the UK.

May 5, 2010

Interprofessional clinical event debriefing-does it make a difference? Attitudes of emergency department care providers to INFO clinical event debriefings.

December 7, 2022

Predicting self-intercepted medication ordering errors using machine learning.

September 1, 2021

An evolution of reporting: identifying the missing link.

August 10, 2022

Epidemiology of healthcare harm in New Zealand general practice: a retrospective records review study.

July 28, 2021

Impact of professional interpreters on outcomes for hospitalized children from migrant and refugee families with limited English proficiency: a systematic review.

September 16, 2020

Communication regarding adverse neonatal birth events: experiences of parents and clinicians.

December 1, 2021

A randomized trial of a multifactorial strategy to prevent serious fall injuries.

July 29, 2020

Predictive power of the "trigger tool" for the detection of adverse events in general surgery: a multicenter observational validation study.

March 9, 2022

Handoffs and teamwork: a framework for care transition communication.

June 29, 2022

Toward zero harm: Mackenzie Health's journey toward becoming a high reliability organization and eliminating avoidable harm.

November 16, 2022

Preventing medication errors in pediatric anesthesia: a systematic scoping review.

November 9, 2022

A longitudinal evaluation of computed tomography radiation incidents within a multisite NHS trust.

November 9, 2022

Why is patient safety a challenge? Insights from the Professionalism Opinions of Medical Students' research.

November 2, 2022

Communication during interhospital transfers of emergency general surgery patients: a qualitative study of challenges and opportunities.

October 26, 2022

Patient safety and legal regulations: a total-scale analysis of the scientific literature.

October 19, 2022

A comparative study measuring the difference of healthcare workers reactions among those involved in a patent safety incident and healthcare professionals while working during COVID-19.

October 19, 2022

Hospital-acquired conditions reduction program, racial and ethnic diversity, and Magnet designation in the United States.

October 12, 2022

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

April 27, 2022

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

June 30, 2021

Bridging the feedback gap: a sociotechnical approach to informing clinicians of patients' subsequent clinical course and outcomes.

June 30, 2021

Applying decision science to the prioritization of healthcare-associated infection initiatives.

October 27, 2021

Test-retest reliability of an experienced Global Trigger Tool review team.

October 27, 2021

Medication errors at hospital admission and discharge: risk factors and impact of medication reconciliation process to improve healthcare.

October 20, 2021

Descriptive analysis of patient misidentification from incident report system data in a large academic hospital federation.

October 20, 2021

Institution of just culture physician peer review in an academic medical center.

October 13, 2021

Prescribing errors with low-molecular-weight heparins.

October 13, 2021

Leading causes of anesthesia-related liability claims in ambulatory surgery centers.

October 6, 2021

Is there a mismatch between the perspectives of patients and regulators on healthcare quality? A survey study.

October 6, 2021

Detach yourself: the positive effect of psychological detachment on patient safety in long-term care.

September 29, 2021

Prevalence and characterisation of diagnostic error among 7-day all-cause hospital medicine readmissions: a retrospective cohort study.

September 16, 2020

Associations between double-checking and medication administration errors: a direct observational study of paediatric inpatients.

August 26, 2020

Related Resources

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

WebM&M Cases

Prolonged DKA in Pregnancy: A Case of Communication Breakdown.

August 30, 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

WebM&M Cases

A Complicated Course: Severe Alcohol Withdrawal with Dexmedetomidine Infusion.

July 31, 2023

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

June 14, 2023

Delays in care during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Veterans Health Administration.

May 3, 2023

We are not there yet: a qualitative system probing study of a hospital rapid response system.

April 20, 2022

The Top Six: standardized safety practices in U.S. Army Medical Department treatment facilities worldwide.

February 23, 2022

Adverse events during intrahospital transport of critically ill patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

February 9, 2022

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

January 12, 2022

WebM&M Cases

Lack of Sepsis Recognition Leads to Delay in Care Following Cesarean Delivery.

November 25, 2020

Scoping review of patients' attitudes about their role and behaviours to ensure safe care at the direct care level.

August 26, 2020

WebM&M Cases

Implicit Biases, Interprofessional Communication, and Power Dynamics

April 29, 2020

Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: a systematic review of the past decade.

April 15, 2020

Interventions for improving teamwork in intrapartem care: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

October 30, 2019

How medical error shapes physicians' perceptions of learning: an exploratory study.

August 21, 2019

Allowing failure for educational purposes in postgraduate clinical training: a narrative review.

July 24, 2019

Clinical reasoning assessment methods: a scoping review and practical guidance.

June 26, 2019

Prevention of opioid overdose.

June 26, 2019

Healthcare scandals and the failings of doctors: do official inquiries hold the profession to account?

March 20, 2019

Adjusting to duty hour reforms: residents' perception of the safety climate in interdisciplinary night-float rotations.

February 20, 2019

Comfort with uncertainty: reframing our conceptions of how clinicians navigate complex clinical situations.

February 13, 2019

Formative evaluation of the video reflexive ethnography method, as applied to the physician–nurse dyad.

February 6, 2019

Shifting and sharing: academic physicians' strategies for navigating underperformance and failure.

December 19, 2018

Creating a culture of accountability promotes safe medical care.

November 21, 2018

Impact of fatigue and insufficient sleep on physician and patient outcomes: a systematic review.

October 3, 2018

Decision support tools, systems, and artificial intelligence in cardiac imaging.

October 3, 2018

Impact of medication reconciliation for improving transitions of care.

September 5, 2018

Patient safety initiatives in obstetrics: a rapid review.

August 29, 2018

See More About The Topic

Situation, background, assessment, recommendation (SBAR) communication tool for handoff in health care- a narrative review.

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Situation, background, assessment, recommendation (SBAR) communication tool for handoff in health care- a narrative review.

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