Clinical handover is an integral part of clinical care, with over 7 million handovers occurring annually in Australian hospitals. Poor handover can lead to wasted resources, staff frustration and adverse events leading to patient harm.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) has released its first edition of the OSSIE Guide to Clinical Handover Improvement. This guide has been developed to assist clinician-leaders and managers to implement solutions and tools for improving clinical handover practices.
The Guide outlines the five phases of OSSIE and offers a step-by-step approach to change management, measurement and the use and development of standardised handover processes.
OSSIE stands for:
O = Organisation leadership
S = Simple solution development
S = Stakeholder engagement
I = Implementation
E = Evaluation and maintenance
The OSSIE Guide is freely available for download from the ACSQHC website
This first edition has been developed as a Consultation Edition and focuses on hospital clinical handover. The ACSQHC is requesting feedback to improve the guide and the VHA will be providing a written submission by late June 2009. If any members wish to provide feedback, this can be done by contacting Jane Sheats on 03 9094 7722 or jane.sheats@vha.org.au
The second edition of OSSIE Guide to Clinical Handover Improvement will also incorporate new chapters on handover in obstetrics, mental health care, inter-hospital transfer and discharge. A guide to help front line clinicians improve handover is also being developed to accompany the OSSIE Guide.
