Volume 187 - Issue 10
A national survey of medical morning handover report in Australian hospitals
Authors: Matthew J Fassett, Terry J Hannan, Iain K Robertson, Steven J Bollipo and Robert G Fassett
Med J Aust 2007; 187 (10): 595-596. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01430.x
Published online: 19 November 2007
Published online: 19 November 2007
In reply: Our national survey was specifically confined to medical morning handover report, one of many forms of clinical handover.1 The clinical governance area may have only recently recognised the importance of clinical handover, but it has been a topical issue for many years in the clinical arena, particularly in the United States.2 While Australia may be leading the way in international collaborations, our survey suggests that this is not translating into clinical practice. Rather than commissions and councils providing tools and guidelines to carry out clinical handover, clinical leaders need to participate and conduct clinical handover themselves at the local level. From our previous experience with morning report, we provided simple tips on how to implement clinical handover at the local level,3 and these have been incorporated into Australian Medical Association guidelines.4
Information technology can be employed to help with the clinical handover process. However, when using the all-inclusive definition of clinical handover suggested by Loh, this task is complex, as research has shown that information management needs vary significantly between different clinical environments and would require multiple end-user-defined outputs from a standardised data repository.5,6
Clinical handover needs to be implemented from the bottom up (by clinicians) rather than from the top down (by commissions).
References
- Fassett MJ, Hannan TJ, Robertson IK, et al. A national survey of medical morning handover report in Australian hospitals. Med J Aust 2007; 187: 164-165. 0_CBBGCBBC
- Harris ED Jr. Morning report. Ann Intern Med 1993; 119: 430-431. 0_CBBDCIFD
- Fassett RG, Bollipo SJ. Morning report: an Australian experience. Med J Aust 2006; 184: 159-161. 0_i1091828
- Australian Medical Association. AMA clinical handover guide — safe handover: safe patients. Canberra: AMA, 2006. http://www.ama.com.au/web.nsf/doc/WEEN-6XFDSP/$file/Clinical_Handover.pdf (accessed Oct 2007).
- McDonald CJ, Overhage JM, Tierney WM, et al. The Regenstrief Medical Record System: a quarter century experience. Int J Med Inform 1999; 54: 225-253. 0_CBBIJHJA
- Tierney WM, Rotich JK, Hannan TJ, et al. The AMPATH Medical Record System: creating, implementing, and sustaining an electronic medical record system to support HIV/AIDS care in western Kenya. Stud Health Technol Inform 2007; 129: 372-376. 0_i1091834