Safety Gaps During Sign Out

Summary: Patients may experienced lower quality of care during sign outs, which is the transfer of a patients during a shift change. Researchers used oral sign-outs and written sign-outs to compare to reports of subsequent errors. It was found that doctors are often more confused about the patient information rather than factual details. Examples of such problems are doctors not fully understanding the clinical condition, or doctors not knowing the reasoning behind a test.

Comment: It is suggested that sign-out procedures become a part of medical school curriculum to raise the quality of patient care. Patients should also be aware that after and during a sign-out their doctors may not be fully informed about their conditions and test. Being able to close these safety gaps at sign-out can allow patients to receive the best care possible.

Read article - HealthNewsDigest.com September 22, 2008