Many hospitals find themselves in a state of transition – where some of the patient record is held on computer, while some is held on a manual chart.  Various processes are put in place – including printing of information from computer systems and inclusion of the hardcopy on the patient chart.  But surely this type of scenario must give rise to a risk that a nurse or doctor dealing with a patient may not have all the relevant, up to date information, to hand?

With this in mid was interested to read about a new protocol being tested to address handoff between medical teams at ehd end/ beginning of a shift.  This piece reports on an initiative at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.  It’s not looking to address any specific gaps in the manual v. electronic record but rather to ensure effective and complete communication between teams at changeover of shifts.