@article{ajphr2016445,
author={{Malik, Mohammad U. and Gandhi, Amibahen and Tahir, Hassan and Sagi, Jhanavi and Narukonda, Sandhya and Simunich, Thomas and Waseem, Saba and Joshi, Medha},
title={The Impact of Inpatient Electronic Sign-out on Quality and Patient Safety},
journal={American Journal of Public Health Research},
volume={4},
number={4},
pages={149--153},
year={2016},
url={http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajphr/4/4/5},
issn={2327-6703},
abstract={<b>Introduction</b><b>: </b>The transition of patient care to the resident on call during the sign-out/hand off is an integral part of residency training and is a time vulnerable to medical errors. <b>Methods</b><b>: </b>Authors conducted the study from July 28<SUP>th</SUP> to December 14<SUP>th</SUP> 2014. Residents (n=26) were required to sign-out via the electronically via the SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation) based electronic template. The quality of sign-out was assessed by night float questionnaire. The quality of the sign-out (scale 1 to 5), preventable morbidities, LOS, mortalities and readmissions were compared pre and post intervention for the admitted patients (pre= 184, post=172). <b>Results</b><b>: </b>Improvement in the mean quality (Likert scale 1-5) of both the written sign-out, 3.0 to 3.8 (p&lt;0.001), and verbal sign-out, 3.0 to 3.6 (p=0.002) (n=22 pre and post), was found. The preventable morbidities decreased from 10% to 5% (p=0.047). No statistically significant difference was noted for lethal morbidities, length of stay or readmissions. <b>Conclusion</b><b>: </b>Implementation of electronic sign-out in addition to verbal sign-out improved the quality of sign-out with trend towards reduction in morbidities. The electronic sign-out may provide key information and help the on call team to make better decisions regarding the patient care.},
doi={10.12691/ajphr-4-4-5}
publisher={Science and Education Publishing}
}