Enhancing the Quality of the Anesthesia to Postanesthesia Care Unit Patient Transfer Through Use of an Electronic Medical Record-Based Handoff Tool

Purpose: Anesthesia to postanesthesia care unit (PACU) handoffs are often incomplete, imprecise, and highly variable with respect to information transfer, and therefore can jeopardize patient safety. A standardized anesthesia to PACU electronic medical record (EMR)-based patient handoff checklist was implemented and evaluated for its effect on the information transfer.

Design: An observational preimplementation and postimplementation design was used.

Methods: Assessment of the completeness and accuracy of information transfer during the PACU handoff was performed for a convenience samples of 100 patients preimplementation, 3 weeks postimplementation, and 3 months postimplementation.

Findings: The mean percentage of total handoff checklist items addressed significantly increased 3 weeks and 3 months postimplementation compared with baseline.

Conclusions: The use of a standardized anesthesia to PACU EMR-based handoff checklist significantly increased the percent of accurate information transferred without considerably affecting the duration of the PACU handoff process.