Safe Patient Hand-off Enhances Safety and Empowers Patients at Trillium Health Centre

Trillium Health Centre nurses in our Orthopaedic unit pioneered a new standardized method of completing their nurse-to-nurse shift change report that focuses on patient safety, quality and accountability.

Incoming and outgoing nurses review the status of their patients together in front of the patient. Our patients feel involved and safe and it improves communication between their health care team members. For this innovation, Trillium was rewarded the prestigious Health Care Safety Award from the Canadian College of Health Services Executives.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Trillium Health Centre
• hospital
• health care
• health centre
• patient hand-off
• patient safety

[N7VER]

@s2macdon - I agree it's the best way to do things, but it's fairly common, at least in some areas. I've seen hospitals go to this kind of thing, then move away from it for some reason or other. Patient, and if appropriate family, involvement in care is very important.

[s2macdon]

@N7VER I do agree it's not a new idea, but it is definitely pioneering that an entire organization is so dedicated to this standardized practice. It's really incredible that because of being embraced by the staff and the organization, it has created a culture of safety and patient involvement that is just a standard. So in this way, it's really cool, don't you think?

[N7VER]

Just have to point out that there is nothing new or pioneering about this. This idea has been around for decades, and has been becoming more common for several years. I first encountered this idea in nursing school in the mid 90s. Not saying it's a bad idea, it's just not "pioneering".