Improving the safety of patient transfer from AMU using a written checklist.

Acute Med. 2012; 11(1): 13-7
Hindmarsh D, Lees L

Unsafe patient transfers are one of a top reasons for incident reporting in hospitals. Criteria guiding safe send have been issued by a NHS Litigation Authority. To encounter this standard, a "transfer check list" was redesigned for all patients leaving a Acute Medical Unit (AMU) in a Heartlands Hospital. Following a key of a checklist two full review cycles were conducted. The first cycle highlighted an extremely poor uptake of a checklist. After interventions to educate nursing staff and raise awareness of a issues at a regular staff meetings, re-audit demonstrated significant alleviation in completion rate. Subsequent monitoring indicates continued improvement, with compliance up to 95% for completion of a send checklist upon AMU. Incident reporting relating to send has additionally decreased significantly.

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