eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Public Health Research 2327-6703 2016-07-16 4 4 149 153 10.12691/ajphr-4-4-5 AJPHR2016445 article Mohammad U. Malik mmalik@conemaugh.org 1 Amibahen Gandhi 1 Hassan Tahir 1 Jhanavi Sagi 1 Sandhya Narukonda 1 Thomas Simunich 1 Saba Waseem 1 Medha Joshi 1 Internal Medicine Conemaugh Health System, Johnstown, PA Introduction: 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. Methods: Authors conducted the study from July 28th to December 14th 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). Results: Improvement in the mean quality (Likert scale 1-5) of both the written sign-out, 3.0 to 3.8 (p<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. Conclusion: 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. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajphr/4/4/5/ajphr-4-4-5.pdf sign-out transition of care residency training quality improvement performance improvement