Can We Talk? The Bedside Report Project

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ standards for establishing and sustaining healthy work environments identify skilled communication as a standard that creates a safe work environment.¹  Good communication also increases satisfaction of patients and their family members and decreases errors, ensuring safe passage for patients. Breakdown in communication was identified as a root cause in more than 65% of 3000 sentinel events analyzed by The Joint Commission.²  Nurse-to-nurse handoff of patient care presents a large risk for potential miscommunication. Therefore, in January 2006, The Joint Commission instituted “Handoff Communication” as a National Patient Safety Goal. Improving communication at handoff begins with a standardized process.³ 

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) Franciscan Health System’s Regional Hospital is a 26-bed long-term acute care hospital (LTAC). LTACs play an important role in the continuum of care for chronically critically ill patients. Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) with multiple comorbid conditions...