Clinical handover (patient handover or handover) is the transfer of professional responsibility and accountability for some or all aspects of care for a patient, or group of patients, to another person or professional group on a temporary or permanent basis.[1]
When critical clinical information emerges or there is a risk to patient care, timely communication of this information to the appropriate person(s) is essential to ensuring patient safety and delivery of the right care. Failure in handover is a major source in preventable patient harm. Clinical handover is an international concern and Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries have developed risk reduction recommendations.[1]
It is important to define and agree on the minimum information content for clinical handovers relevant to a service or discipline. It may be helpful to consider what clinical and non-clinical information is time critical or significant to patient care, such as:[2]
Use of structured handover tools can help to provide a framework for communicating the minimum information content for clinical handovers. This may be supported by electronic clinical handover templates.[3]
Examples of clinical handover tools to help structure handover:[2]
