Healthcare systems tend to be reactive rather
than proactive, with innovations often being
implemented after an adverse event has occurred
(Department of Health (DH) 2009). Preventable
errors provide a challenge for healthcare
systems because they require investigation and
implementation of change. Implementing change
can place pressure on local budgets, while the
error that led to the change may be costly in terms
of reputation, compensation, legal expenses and
harm to the patient (Graban and Swartz 2012).
Therefore, the development of innovative ideas as a
method of preventing errors is becoming prominent
(Graban and Swartz 2012). One advantage of the
community mental health nursing handover form
is that it costs little to implement in practice.