Midland Memorial Hospital, Texas - Implementation of TeamSTEPPS to improve patient handoff

Martina

Patient handoffs is deemed the most frequent and riskiest procedure in the hospital because of serious medical errors occurring due to poor communication between care providers during patient handoffs (Joint Commission report, 2012). Hospital administrators and managers struggle to effectively implement tools to structure patient handoffs and improve transfer of communication. The perioperative unit at Midland Memorial Hospital (MMH) in Texas was in precisely that situation. To fix this, in 2012 hospital administrators and managers implemented TeamSTEPPS, a commonly used set of evidence-based strategies and tools (e.g., paper checklists, mnemonic devices) for improving teamwork and communication among providers.

Read more: https://hbr.org/2018/04/how-one-hospital-improved-patient-handoffs-for-the-long-term