Information loss can occur during all phases of care.
The transfer of care (handoff) from the operating room
to the postoperative anesthesia care unit (PACU) is an
especially susceptible time. Information loss can lead
to an increase in medication errors, sentinel events,
and poor patient outcomes. High-reliability organizations,
such as the aviation industry, use checklists to
decrease errors and improve safety. As the healthcare
industry becomes more complex, it is in the interest
of patient safety to develop, validate, and use similar
objective procedures as those used in high-reliability
organizations. The purpose of this research was to
determine if the utilization of a formulated checklist
with objective measures during the handoff from the
operating room to the PACU decreased information
loss, the need for information clarification, and anesthesia
providers’ time spent in transfer of care, with
improved adequacy of the handoff. Specific metrics
were monitored before and after implementation to
assess for information loss, information clarification,
anesthesia providers’ time, and to rate the adequacy
of the report.
Keywords: Checklist, handoff, information loss.