One of the biggest concerns about capping resident work-hours is that more doctors will be caring for a single, hospitalized patient. This increases the risk of miscommunication and medical errors.
The period where patient information is transferred from one team to another is an area that needs to be standardized and regulated. Too many details often slip through the cracks, which often negatively affects patient care.
Surgeons at Johns Hopkins have begun to do this, proposing a list of minimal criteria that needs to be included in the hand-off.
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{ 2 comments }
love the comments on this post. old vs.”new” school. how tech advances aren’t mandatory in this field of handover medicine i don’t know. pda’s, smart phones, giving you patient info, task alarms, real time lab results etc… hipaa aside, why is this not more widespread? mandatory?
hopkins was one of the first programs disciplined for violating work hours. now they are going to be the leaders of the handoff? lol
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