Using the I-PASS Standardized Report Tool in the Emergency Department: Quality Improvement Project
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Date
2024-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Medical errors from poor communication in hospitals is a common occurrence that is costly, yet avoidable. Patient handoffs between nurses are one of the most common periods where communication breakdown occurs due to a myriad of contributing factors, such as busy nurses, lack of standardization of handoff, and lack of proper handoff techniques. Communication breakdown poses a major risk to patient safety and is a large source of financial strain for hospitals. I-PASS (Illness severity, Patient summary, Action list, Situation awareness, Synthesis by receiver) is an easy-to-use, effective, and cost-efficient tool to standardize handoff communication between emergency departments and inpatient units. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement the use of I-PASS to improve the communication between the emergency department and inpatient units at a large, metropolitan hospital while improving nurses’ perception of patient safety. Registered nurses in the emergency department received training on the use of I-PASS in multiple approaches: staff meetings, emails, and continued education. An assessment was distributed to nurses to assess pre- and post-intervention on the usability and potential implications in the ED setting. At the end of the 6-week implementation, 61.4% of nurses (n = 54) self-reported using I-PASS in 75% or more of handoff communications. In general, the nurses reported that I-PASS was easy, simple, and usable (n=31). Lastly, 97.1% of nurses (n = 67) agreed that I-PASS would improve handoff practices and 98.6% of nurses (n =70) agreed that the I-PASS handoff tool would be effective for patient safety.
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Keywords
I-PASS, communication, patient handoff, medical error