Handoffs in Radiology: Minimizing Communication Errors and Improving Care Transitions.

Publication/Presentation Date

9-1-2021

Abstract

Handoffs are essential to achieving safe care transitions. In radiology practice, frequent transitions of care responsibility among clinicians, radiologists, and patients occur between moments of care such as determining protocol, imaging, interpreting, and consulting. Continuity of care is maintained across these transitions with handoffs, which are the process of communicating patient information and transferring decision-making responsibility. As a leading cause of medical error, handoffs are a major communication challenge that is exceedingly common in both diagnostic and interventional radiology practice. The frequency of handoffs in radiology underscores the importance of using evidence-based strategies to improve patient safety in the radiology department. In this article, reliability science principles and handoff improvement tools are adapted to provide radiology-focused strategies at individual, team, and organizational levels with the goal of minimizing handoff errors and improving care transitions.

Volume

18

Issue

9

First Page

1297

Last Page

1309

ISSN

1558-349X

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

PubMedID

33989534

Department(s)

Fellows and Residents

Document Type

Article

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