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On-Call Geriatric Psychiatry pp 87–97Cite as

Safe Clinical Handover

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Abstract

Handover can present opportunities for a number of medical errors. Geriatric patients are at particularly high risk of misadventure as a result of growing medical complexity with age, with such complexity typically resulting in the involvement of multiple clinicians and thus multiple layers of handover during an episode of care. In any given 24-h period in an acute care setting (which includes the on-call shift), a patient may experience up to three regular shifts of clinicians, in addition to being transported between various areas for diagnostic testing, treatment, and observation. The handover at each stage requires a degree of clinical diligence to ensure optimal transfer of care. This chapter will examine handover across various interfaces and discuss ways of optimizing the process. The chapter will also examine handover from the acute care institution to the patient’s residence and primary care physician, as discharge has not been traditionally considered a handover interface, yet it presents a critical transition of care.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Mariam Abdurrahman MD, MSc, Dip (GHEI)

  2. Post-graduate Medical Education, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Claudia Garcia MD

Authors
  1. Mariam Abdurrahman MD, MSc, Dip (GHEI)
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  2. Claudia Garcia MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mariam Abdurrahman MD, MSc, Dip (GHEI) .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neuros, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Ana Hategan

  2. Dept. of Psychiatry/Langley Porter Psych, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, New York, USA

    James A. Bourgeois

  3. Dept.of Internal Med.,Div of General Med, University of California Davis, Sacramento, California, USA

    Calvin H. Hirsch

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Abdurrahman, M., Garcia, C. (2016). Safe Clinical Handover. In: Hategan, A., Bourgeois, J., Hirsch, C. (eds) On-Call Geriatric Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30346-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30346-8_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30344-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30346-8

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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