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Clinical Artifacts as a Treasure Map to Navigate Handoff Complexity

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Cognitive Informatics in Health and Biomedicine

Part of the book series: Health Informatics ((HI))

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Abstract

Why is handoff communication such an important and difficult issue to tackle in healthcare? First, let’s look at why it is important. Poor teamwork and communication are associated with patient safety errors, inefficient use of resources, and excessive lengths of stay [15, 24, 27, 40, 51]. These are all critical foci of any quality and safety initiatives and are increasingly important in the context of Accountable Care Organizations and payment reform. Transitions of care are a time of heightened vulnerability to errors and delays in care [9, 37, 38].

Portions of this chapter appeared in Collins et al., In search of common ground in handoff documentation in an intensive care unit. Journal of Biomedical Informatics. 45(2):307–315, with permissions from Elsevier.

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Acknowledgment

We acknowledge Dr. Dan Stein for his contribution to the inter-coder reliability, Alisabeth Shine, Paul Reyfman, and all the clinicians who participated in the study described in this chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Sarah A. Collins RN, PhD

  2. Partners Healthcare Systems, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Sarah A. Collins RN, PhD

  3. Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Lena Mamykina PhD

  4. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Desmond A. Jordan MD

  5. Department of Biomedical Informatics, Arizona State University, Scottsdale, AZ, 85259, USA

    David R. Kaufman PhD

Authors
  1. Sarah A. Collins RN, PhD
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  2. Lena Mamykina PhD
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  3. Desmond A. Jordan MD
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  4. David R. Kaufman PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah A. Collins RN, PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. New York Academy of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Vimla L. Patel

  2. Arizona State University, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

    David R. Kaufman

  3. University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, USA

    Trevor Cohen

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Collins, S.A., Mamykina, L., Jordan, D.A., Kaufman, D.R. (2014). Clinical Artifacts as a Treasure Map to Navigate Handoff Complexity. In: Patel, V., Kaufman, D., Cohen, T. (eds) Cognitive Informatics in Health and Biomedicine. Health Informatics. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5490-7_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5490-7_15

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