Handover methods between local emergency medical services and Accident and Emergency: is there a gold standard? A scoping review.

Massimo Guasconi; Antonio Bonacaro; Emanuele Tamagnini; Silvia Biral; Linda Brigliadori; Sabrina Borioni; Daniele  Collura; Sara Fontana; Giulia Ingallina; Maria Chiara Bassi; Enrico Lucenti; Giovanna Artioli

doi:10.23750/abm.v93i4.13515

Handover methods between local emergency medical services and Accident and Emergency: is there a gold standard? A scoping review.

Authors

Massimo Guasconi University of Parma, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Parma, Italy; “Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale” (Local Health Service) of Piacenza, Piacenza, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8855-8919
Antonio Bonacaro University of Suffolk, School of Health and Sports Sciences, Ipswich, UK https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4475-5280
Emanuele Tamagnini “Croce Azzurra Riccione” (Local Emergency Medical Service), Riccione (RN), Italy
Silvia Biral “Croce Azzurra Riccione” (Local Emergency Medical Service), Riccione (RN), Italy
Linda Brigliadori “Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale” (Local Health Service) Romagna, Rimini, Italy
Sabrina Borioni “Azienda Sanitaria Unica Regionale” (Local Health Service) Marche, Fabriano (AN), Italy
Daniele Collura “Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale” (Local Health Service) of Crema, Crema (CR), Italy
Sara Fontana “Villa Maria” Private Hospital, Rimini, Italy
Giulia Ingallina “Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale” (Local Health Service) of Piacenza, Piacenza, Italy
Maria Chiara Bassi “Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale – IRCCS” (Local Health Service) of Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5418-2837
Enrico Lucenti “Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale” (Local Health Service) of Piacenza, Piacenza, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8507-8699
Giovanna Artioli University of Parma, Department of Medicine and Surgery, Parma, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1810-0857

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v93i4.13515

Keywords:

Prehospital, Handoff, Handover, Methods, Emergency

Abstract

Background: Pre-hospital emergency medical systems do not appear to work totally coordinated with Accident and Emergency (A&E).

Often, patient admission to A&E is marked by scarce attention to the handover between the respective healthcare professionals.

This phenomenon is potentially dangerous because it exposes patients to the risk of errors in a context where the patients’ critical or progressing conditions must not be worsened by avoidable errors of communication between professionals.

Objectives: to describe the evidence concerning handover between local emergency medical services and A&E.

Eligibility criteria: pre-hospital emergency medical and A&E professionals, setting defined as within A&E, articles on pre-hospital to A&E handover.

Sources of evidence: PubMed and CINAHL Complete databases. Grey literature.

Charting Methods: the results are displayed in tables according to ‘Title’, ‘Design’, ‘Country’, ‘Population’, ‘Concept’, ‘Context’ and ‘Results’.

Results: 10 studies were included. The following themes emerged: communication and interpersonal issues, secondary risks, need for staff training, the use of structured methods, information technology support.

Conclusions: There is a gap in the literature. Issues regarding communication, differing ideas of what should be considered as priority, interpersonal relationships and trust between staff working for different services emerge. Connected with this there are structural problems such as shortage of suitable spaces and lack of staff training. The use of structured mnemonic methods, including computerized ones, seems to improve the quality of handovers, but to date it has not been possible to establish which method would be better than another. Further studies are recommended.

References

Raimondi M, Landriscina M, Pellicori S, Brancaglione A, Comelli A, Sforzini I, et al. Territorial emergency: physician or nurse? Minerva Anestesiol. 2004;70(5):405–9.

Decreto Presidente della Repubblica 27 marzo 1992. Atto di indirizzo e coordinamento alle Regioni per la determinazione dei livelli di assistenza sanitaria di emergenza [Act of guidance and coordination to the Regions for the determination of the levels of emergency health care]. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana - 31/03/92 – Serie Generale n°76; 1992.

Van Schuppen H, Bierens J. Understanding the prehospital physician controversy. Step 1: Comparing competencies of ambulance nurses and prehospital physicians. Eur J Emerg Med. 2011;18(6):322–7.

Ehlers P, Seidel M, Schacher S, Pin M, Fimmers R, Kogej M, et al. Prospective observational multisite study of handover in the emergency department: Theory versus practice. West J Emerg Med. 2021;22(2):401–9.

Fitzpatrick D, McKenna M, Duncan EAS, Laird C, Lyon R, Corfield A. Critcomms: A national cross-sectional questionnaire based study to investigate prehospital handover practices between ambulance clinicians and specialist prehospital teams in Scotland. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2018;26(1):1–11.

Jamshidi H, Jazani RK, Alibabaei A, Alamdari S, Kalyani MN. Challenges of cooperation between the pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency services in the handover of victims of road traffic accidents: A qualitative study. Investig y Educ en Enferm. 2019;37(1):70-79.

Wood K, Crouch R, Rowland E, Pope C. Clinical handovers between prehospital and hospital staff: Literature review. Emerg Med J. 2015;32(7):577–81.

Joint Commission. Sentinel event data root causes by event type [Internet]. 2012. [cited 2021 Jun 3]. Available from: http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/Root_Causes_ Event_Type_04_4Q2012.pdf.

Talbot R, Bleetman A. Retention of information by emergency department staff at ambulance handover: Do standardised approaches work? Emerg Med J. 2007;24(8):539–42.

Jensen SM, Lippert A, Østergaard D. Handover of patients: A topical review of ambulance crew to emergency department handover. Acta Anaesthesiol Scan. 2013;57(8):964–70.

Arksey H, O’Malley L. Scoping studies: Towards a methodological framework. Int J Soc Res Methodol Theory Pract. 2005;8(1):19–32.

Peters MDJ, Marnie C, Tricco AC, Pollock D, Munn Z, Alexander L, et al. Updated methodological guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews. JBI Evid Synth. 2020;18(10):2119–26.

Pollock D, Davies EL, Peters MDJ, Tricco AC, Alexander L, McInerney P, et al. Undertaking a scoping review: A practical guide for nursing and midwifery students, clinicians, researchers, and academics. J Adv Nurs. 2021;77(4):2102–13.

PRISMA - TRANSPARENT REPORTING of SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS and META-ANALYSES [Internet]. Available from: https://www.prisma-statement.org/

Janagama SR, Strehlow M, Gimkala A, Rao GVR, Matheson L, Mahadevan S, et al. Critical Communication: A Cross-sectional Study of Signout at the Prehospital and Hospital Interface. Cureus. 2020;12(2):e7114.

Iedema R, Ball C, Daly B, Young J, Green T, Middleton PM, et al. Design and trial of a new ambulance-to-emergency department handover protocol: “IMIST-AMBO.” BMJ Qual Saf. 2012;21(8):627–33.

Maddry JK, Simon EM, Reeves LK, Mora AG, Clemons MA, Shults NM, et al. Impact of a Standardized Patient Hand-off Tool on Communication between Emergency Medical Services Personnel and Emergency Department Staff. Prehospital Emerg Care. 2021;25(4):530–8.

Meisel ZF, Shea JA, Peacock NJ, Dickinson ET, Paciotti B, Bhatia R, et al. Optimizing the patient handoff between emergency medical services and the emergency department. Ann Emerg Med. 2015;65(3):310-317.e1.

Hovenkamp GT, Olgers TJ, Wortel RR, Noltes ME, Dercksen B, Ter Maaten JC. The satisfaction regarding handovers between ambulance and emergency department nurses: an observational study. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2018;26(1):78.

Kalyani MN, Fereidouni Z, Sarvestani RS, Shirazi ZH, Taghinezhad A. Perspectives of patient handover among paramedics and emergency departmentmembers; a qualitative study. Arch Acad Emerg Med. 2019;7(1):76.

Waldron R, Sixsmith DM. Emergency physician awareness of prehospital procedures and medications. West J Emerg Med. 2014;15(4):504–10.

Di Delupis FD, Mancini N, di Nota T, Pisanelli P. Pre-hospital/emergency department handover in Italy. Intern Emerg Med. 2015;10(1):63–72.

Murray SL, Crouch R, Ainsworth-Smith M. Quality of the handover of patient care: A comparison of Pre-Hospital and Emergency Department notes. Int Emerg Nurs. 2012;20(1):24–7.