Improving weekend handover in a teaching hospital elective general surgery department
Frontiers in Surgery · 6 authors, 3 centres
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FIDELITY 100%
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A quality improvement project introduced a weekend handover proforma and education in an elective general surgery department, finding marked improvement in documentation of patient weekend plans.
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The team reviewed weekend plans for 199 patients overall, with 41 records reviewed pre-intervention and 158 post-intervention, alongside pre- and post-intervention multidisciplinary surveys. Initial documentation was low across key areas such as diagnosis (19.5%), operation/procedure (28.1%), and discharge planning (2.4%). After implementing a weekend handover proforma and education, documentation improved for diagnosis (61.2%), operation/procedure (83.2%), blood tests (59.7%), and discharge planning (85.8%), but little or no improvement occurred for antibiotics (14.2%), IV fluids (17.2%), mobility (14.9%), diet (53.0%), and drain/wound care (20.2%). Limitations included limited multidisciplinary survey representation and rotating staff cohorts between phases. The authors recommend combining dedicated proforma sections with education and ongoing audit to sustain improvements.
