Standard 6: Clinical Handover
Advice Centre Network Meeting
Suellen Allen
February 2013
The Standard
Intention of the Standard:

Ensure there is timely, relevant and structured clinical
handover that supports safe patient care.
Three criteria
1.
Governance and Leadership for effective clinical handover
• Health service organisations implement effective clinical
handover systems
2.
Clinical Handover Process
• Health service organisations have documented and
structured handover processes in place
3.
Patient and carer involvement in clinical handover
• Health service organistions establish mechanisms to
include patients and carers in clinical handover processes
Questions: What is ‘structured clinical handover’?
that the minimum data set (information content) and
conduct of handover be delivered in a structured format
to improve patient safety

What is a ‘minimum data set’ ?
• the minimum content that must be contained and
transferred in an individual patient handover
• There are many possible minimum data sets and will
vary depending on the context and reason of the
handover
What structured clinical handover is relevant
to the healthcare setting?
Needs to be flexible – depend on:
•
Points of risk during patient transition of care
•
Setting
•
Situation
•
Method
Clinical Handover Process example
Hospital example
If a hospital transfers a patient:
•
•
•
•
to another facility
within the hospital
to oncoming clinicians to the next shift
or is discharged
Handover processes need to be in place for these situations
 Shift
to shift
 Inter
and Intra hospital transfer
 Discharge
Summary
Clinical Handover Process Example
Day Procedure Centre example
Patient handover situations may include:

Handover between theatre staff with recovery staff

Procedures for handover at discharge to the primary
carer and the patient such as a discharge summary
What tools and resources?

Various tools (ISOBAR, ISBAR, SBAR, SHARED) have
been developed to help structured handover and are
designed to be flexible and adapted to suit local
workforce environments.

Health services can use new tools, or alter available
tools, to develop structured process documentation.

Education resources are available on the Commission
Website
How to incorporate clinical handover into
documentation?

Policy and procedure

Documentation of clinical handover
o
Clinical handover records
o
Patient care plans
o
Discharge summaries
o
Operation reports
o
Transfer checklist (if appropriate)
Other Questions

Change management?

Ideas, strategies and evaluation?

“is it Ok for us to do it this way?”
“ We are struggling with getting our staff to restrict
themselves with the information exchanged at the group
handover. How do we affect this change?”


Acceptance by patients?
Resources

Safety and Quality Improvement Guide and Workbooks

Implementation Toolkit for Clinical Handover Improvement and
Resource Portal

OSSIE Guide for Clinical Handover Improvement

Jurisdictional programs

Other Australian organisations and resources