Safe handoff practices and improvement of communication in different paediatric settings

Abstract

Inadequate information management, especially during patient handoff, contributes to a large part of health care-related adverse events. The Committee for Quality of Care and Patient Safety of the Asociación Española de Pediatría has developed this document to provide an overview of handover practices in different paediatric care settings (emergency, inpatient, intensive care, neonatal and primary care). It describes resources to achieve safe and effective communication in all these settings, such as standardised handoff tools. It also proposes recommendations for the prevention of medication errors during the handover process, to improve safety in interhospital and intrahospital patient transfer, and to optimise communication and continuity of care in chronically ill and medically complex children.

Keywords: Adverse events; Atención pediátrica; Eventos adversos; Paediatric care; Patient handoff; Patient handover; Patient safety; Seguridad del paciente; Transferencia de pacientes; Traspaso de cuidados.