title: Physician handoffs: opportunities and limitations for supportive technologies.
abstract: Shift-to-shift handoffs refer to the process of transferring role and responsibility for providing care from one person to another, thus insuring continuity of care. Through focus groups of residents and supervising physicians, we studied how physicians select patient cases to discuss during handoffs. We also compared the selection across level of experience. Understanding the patient selection criteria can give us insight into how to improve handoffs, in particular using supportive technologies that are integrated into the clinical information system. Studying the actual handoff process and note-taking also generated suggestions for handoff improvement.
authors.affiliation: University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland; University of Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Katherine S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Blondon
authors.affiliation: University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wipfli
authors.affiliation: University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland; University of Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mathieu R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Nendaz
authors.affiliation: University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland; University of Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lovis
mesh_terms: D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D062209:Patient Handoff / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D061214:Patient Safety; D018579:Patient Selection; D058996:Quality Improvement