- Starmer, Amy;
- Spector, Nancy;
- OToole, Jennifer;
- Bismilla, Zia;
- Calaman, Sharon;
- Campos, Maria-Lucia;
- Coffey, Maitreya;
- Destino, Lauren;
- Everhart, Jennifer;
- Goldstein, Jenna;
- Graham, Dionne;
- Hepps, Jennifer;
- Howell, Eric;
- Kuzma, Nicholas;
- Maynard, Greg;
- Melvin, Patrice;
- Patel, Shilpa;
- Popa, Alina;
- Schnipper, Jeffrey;
- Sectish, Theodore;
- Srivastava, Rajendu;
- West, Daniel;
- Yu, Clifton;
- Landrigan, Christopher;
- Rosenbluth, Glenn
BACKGROUND: Handoff miscommunications are a leading source of medical errors. Harmful medical errors decreased in pediatric academic hospitals following implementation of the I-PASS handoff improvement program. However, implementation across specialties has not been assessed. OBJECTIVE: To determine if I-PASS implementation across diverse settings would be associated with improvements in patient safety and communication. DESIGN: Prospective Type 2 Hybrid effectiveness implementation study. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: Residents from diverse specialties across 32 hospitals (12 community, 20 academic). INTERVENTION: External teams provided longitudinal coaching over 18 months to facilitate implementation of an enhanced I-PASS program and monthly metric reviews. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES: Systematic surveillance surveys assessed rates of resident-reported adverse events. Validated direct observation tools measured verbal and written handoff quality. RESULTS: 2735 resident physicians and 760 faculty champions from multiple specialties (16 internal medicine, 13 pediatric, 3 other) participated. 1942 error surveillance reports were collected. Major and minor handoff-related reported adverse events decreased 47% following implementation, from 1.7 to 0.9 major events/person-year (p < .05) and 17.5 to 9.3 minor events/person-year (p < .001). Implementation was associated with increased inclusion of all five key handoff data elements in verbal (20% vs. 66%, p < .001, n = 4812) and written (10% vs. 74%, p < .001, n = 1787) handoffs, as well as increased frequency of handoffs with high quality verbal (39% vs. 81% p < .001) and written (29% vs. 78%, p < .001) patient summaries, verbal (29% vs. 78%, p < .001) and written (24% vs. 73%, p < .001) contingency plans, and verbal receiver syntheses (31% vs. 83%, p < .001). Improvement was similar across provider types (adult vs. pediatric) and settings (community vs. academic).