Improving the quality of the operating room to intensive care unit handover at an urban teaching hospital through a bundled intervention

Study objective To evaluate the efficacy of a bundled intervention to improve the quality of the operating room to intensive care unit (ICU) clinical handover. Design Prospective, interventional study. Setting An urban, public teaching hospital with more than 1500 direct postoperative ICU admissions each year. Interventions A bundled intervention to include the addition of a direct anesthesia provider to ICU nurse telephone report, a mnemonic to standardize the handover process, and improved template for postoperative documentation by the anesthesia team. Measurements Preintervention (baseline) and postintervention survey data were solicited from key stakeholders, which included anesthesia providers and ICU nursing staff. Main results Anesthesia provider and ICU nursing staff satisfaction levels rose significantly following implementation of the bundled intervention. In addition, perceived effectiveness of the handover process and note increased significantly. The satisfaction level of the ICU nurses with respect to the phone report received before patient arrival in the ICU nearly doubled. Conclusions The implementation of a bundled handover intervention was associated with increased stakeholder satisfaction as well as a perception of increased efficacy and quality of the overall handover process and postoperative anesthesia documentation.