Background: National guidelines recommend hospitals implement standardized approaches to handoffs, and recent quantitative research has indicated that standardized approaches such as the I-PASS tool can lead to sustained improvements in patient safety and provider communication in a diverse array of settings.1 Our hospital medicine group piloted a formal written handoffs process based on the I-PASS [...]

Background: Day-to-night inpatient handoff is a high-risk moment, with potential for miscommunication. A novel handoff program recently reduced medical errors and preventable adverse events. Historically, handoffs performed by Internal Medicine residents at our institution were not standardized and there was little workplace-based performance feedback. We evaluated the impact of a novel standardized handoff tool and [...]

Background: Critical illness requires initiation of several classes of medications to treat or prevent different conditions. These include nebulizers, PPIs, antipsychotics, antibiotics, steroids, anticoagulants, opioids, benzodiazepines, & several others. Continuation of these medications upon transfer from MICU to the floor is a common occurrence with downstream implications including side effects or potential harm to patients, [...]