Take 5: Tackling Inadequate Hand-off Communication

In 2006, The Joint Commission established a National Patient Safety Goal that addressed hand-off communication errors. Now, in Sentinel Event Alert 58: Inadequate hand-off communication, we’re continuing to address this common patient safety risk. A typical teaching hospital may experience more than 4,000 hand-offs every day, and the numerous risk points during this process make patients vulnerable. Hand-offs are a necessary part of patient care and cannot be avoided, so the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare created a Targeted Solutions Tool^® and a project to help health care professionals perform hand-offs better.

Klaus Nether, D.H.Sc., MMI, MT (ASCP) SV, executive director of High Reliability Product Delivery for the Center, discusses those tools and strategies. [7:54]