Standardizing Operating Room to Post Anesthesia Care Unit Patient Handover with SBAR: A Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Miscommunication between health care providers has been linked to adverse patient outcomes. The implementation of a standardized patient handover tool is supported by regulatory standards of care and promotes improved communication during the patient handover process. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to assess anesthesia providers’ and post-anesthesia care unit nurses’ perceptions of adequacy of a standardized anesthesia SBAR tool during patient handover from the operating room to post-anesthesia care unit at a partnering facility using confidential pre- and post-intervention surveys. A review of pre-implementation and post-implementation data showed that the participants in the project were satisfied with the standardized patient handover tool. The results demonstrated that the SBAR tool was found to be both efficient and comprehensive by the post-anesthesia care unit nurses and anesthesia providers. The post-anesthesia care unit registered nurses who assessed patient handovers using the standardized patient handover process reported that the SBAR tool allowed critical communication aspects to be addressed. Standardizing anesthesia patient handover from the operating room to post-anesthesia care unit has the potential to provide a more thorough patient handover process which can lead to enhanced patient safety.