Developing and implementing an organisational system for structured clinical handover
that is relevant to the healthcare setting and specialties, including:
• documented policy, procedures and/or protocols
• agreed tools and guides (continued)
(continued)
6.1.1 Clinical
handover policies,
procedures and/or
protocols are used
by the workforce and
regularly monitored
Outputs of improvement processes may include:
• documented organisational policy, procedures and/or processes relating to
clinical handover procedures
• clinical handover policy and procedure corresponds with the achievement of
other expected outcomes in Standard 1: Governance for Safety and Quality
in Health Service Organisations; Standard 2: Partnering with Consumers;
Standard 3: Preventing and Controlling Healthcare Associated Infections;
Standard 4: Medication Safety; Standard 5: Patient Identification and
Procedure Matching; Standard 9: Recognising and Responding to
Clinical Deterioration in Acute Health Care
• evaluation of compliance of current clinical handover policy with
corresponding action planning
• appointment of relevant meeting, committee, with oversight of clinical governance
for handover.
6.1.2 Action is
taken to maximise
the effectiveness
of clinical handover
policies, procedures
and/or protocols
Key task:
• Evaluation of clinical handover policies, procedures and/or protocols
Suggested strategies:
A systematic approach for evaluating clinical handover policies, procedures and/or
protocols is required. This provides an understanding of whether, and to what extent,
communication during handover is being utilised and practiced in specific organisational
environments. The evaluation process ensures that you maximise the effectiveness of
clinical handover. The evaluation process should be appropriate to meet the context and
size of the health service organisation. For example, project teams may be appropriate
in large health service organisations but not necessary in a small organisation where
it may be most suitable for an individual member of the workforce to be responsible for
evaluation activities.
To maximise effectiveness of clinical handover policies, a good place to start is to reflect
on current practice and evaluation of workforce issues and culture. Your evaluation of
current practice will indicate whether and how you can make improvements to current
practice, and what changes are required.
Some handover information will be regularly located in the patient record (e.g. patient
care plans, operation reports, discharge summaries). Other clinical handover
documentation (e.g. handover checklists, transfer checklists) may not be a permanent
part of the clinical record. You will need to consider how and what handover
documentation should be archived to enable evaluation of clinical handover practice.
The relationship between any handover documentation and patient records must be
clearly identified in your policy, procedures and/or protocols.
If improvement to current policies, procedures and/or protocols concerning clinical
handover is required, a useful tool in ensuring effective organisational change is outlined
in the The Toolkit 5
.
Essential elements for implementing clinical handover policy include:
• planning checklist
• organisational leadership checklist
• implementation checklist
• evaluation and maintenance checklist.
Standard 6: Clinical Handover | 13
Actions required Implementation strategies
6.1 Developing and implementing an organisational system for structured clinical handover
that is relevant to the healthcare setting and specialties, including:
• documented policy, procedures and/or protocols
• agreed tools and guides (continued)
(continued)
6.1.2 Action is
taken to maximise
the effectiveness
of clinical handover
policies, procedures
and/or protocols
Outputs of improvement processes may include:
• availability of organisation-wide information tools and policy requirements
• a quality improvement plan that includes evidence of:
– a project team or member of the workforce responsible for the improvement
– a committee with clearly defined terms of reference or designated individual with
equivalent responsibilities
• documented policy for incident reporting
• documented policy for evaluation, audit and feedback processes and follow-up
of improvement process to ensure improvements are sustained.
6.1.3 Tools
and guides are
periodically reviewed
Key task:
• Maintenance of established policies and tools to ensure that best practice
is up to date within clinical settings
Suggested strategies:
Evaluation and monitoring tools and guides used in clinical handover should be an
integral part of planning and implementing clinical handover policies. You should consider
this from the beginning of the project, over a range of organisational mechanisms and
management levels, to ensure that tools and guides are being us