Changes in Medical Errors After Implementation of a Handoff Program

An earlier single-institution study on pediatric patient handoffs—co-funded by CRICO—was the catapult for this new multicenter study which concluded, “improvements in verbal and written communication between healthcare providers during patient handoffs can reduce hospital medical errors by 30 percent.”

Citation and link to the current study:

Starmer AJ, Spector ND, Srivastava R, et al. Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff Program. N Engl J Med. 2014 Nov 6;371(19):1803-12. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1405556.