Hospital patients suffer in shift shuffle

Patient handovers have increased significantly as a result of the restrictions on the number of hours residents are allowed to work. Multiple shift changes, and resulting consecutive sign-outs, during patient handovers are linked to a decrease in both the amount and quality of information conveyed between residents, according to a new study by Dr. Adam Helms from the University of Virginia Healthsystem in the US and his colleagues. Their work1, which characterizes the complex process of resident sign-out in a teaching hospital, appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine2, published by Springer.

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