title: Mobile physician reporting of clinically significant events-a novel way to improve handoff communication and supervision of resident on call activities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Reporting of clinically significant events represents an important mechanism by which patient safety problems may be identified and corrected. However, time pressure and cumbersome report entry procedures have discouraged the full participation of physicians. To improve the process, our internal medicine training program developed an easy-to-use mobile platform that combines the reporting process with patient sign-out.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between August 25, 2011, and January 25, 2012, our trainees entered clinically significant events into i-touch/i-phone/i-pad based devices functioning in wireless-synchrony with our desktop application. Events were collected into daily reports that were sent from the handoff system to program leaders and attending physicians to plan for rounds and to correct safety problems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using the mobile module, residents entered 31 reportable events per month versus the 12 events per month that were reported via desktop during a previous 6-month study period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Advances in information technology now permit clinically significant events that take place during "off hours" to be identified and reported (via handoff) to next providers and to supervisors via collated reports. This information permits hospital leaders to correct safety issues quickly and effectively, while attending physicians are able to use information gleaned from the reports to optimize rounding plans and to provide additional oversight of trainee on call patient management decisions.
authors.affiliation: From the *Department of Medicine, and †Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, New York Medical College/Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, New York.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nabors
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: Wilbert S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Aronow
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sule
authors.forename: Arif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mumtaz
authors.forename: Tushar
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Etta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eskridge
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wold
authors.forename: Gary W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Stallings
authors.forename: Kathleen Kelly
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Burak
authors.forename: Randy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Arunabh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sekhri
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.forename: Sahil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khera
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Montoya
authors.forename: Mala
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paudel
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Frishman
mesh_terms: D040421:Cell Phone; D003142:Communication; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003201:Computers; D005260:Female; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D064406:Patient Harm; D061214:Patient Safety; D010820:Physicians; D058996:Quality Improvement