Strengthening surgical handover: Developing and evaluating the effectiveness of a handover tool to improve patient safety

The European Working Time Directive and economic challenges have led to a paradigm of shift-work becoming common, and yet the continuation of high-quality patient care remains paramount. Effective and safe transfer of clinical information is critical as emphasised by the Royal College of Surgeons document ‘Safe handover: Guidance from the Working Time Directive working party (March 2007)’. The aim of this project was to design and implement a handover proforma in order to deliver a more efficient and safer system for patient care over the weekend. The surgical weekend handover proforma was designed following consultation with nursing and medical colleagues. It included a traffic light scoring system to alert the on-call team of the urgency of clinical review. An educational session was delivered to junior doctors on the surgical rotation to ensure accurate completion of the proforma. All trainee surgical doctors from Foundation Year 1 to Specialist Registrars were asked to complete a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire. Improvement was noted in all categories measured. 85% of the firms were using the new surgical weekend handover sheet. 78% of junior doctors were confident in understanding the patient's condition and executing the clinical jobs faster, with ward rounds lasting less than 3 hours. On average, 20% of patients were discharged per weekend during the trial period. Robust patient handover is vital to maintain patient safety and avoid adverse events. Our findings support the use of a surgical proforma to provide a consistent and structured approach to inpatient handover during the weekend.