Meta-analyses of the effects of standardized handoff protocols on patient, provider, and organizational outcomes

Objective:The overall purpose was to understand the effects of handoff protocols using meta-analytic approaches.Background:Standardized protocols have been required by the Joint Commission, but meta-analytic integration of handoff protocol research has not been conducted.Method:The primary outcomes investigated were handoff information passed during transitions of care, patient outcomes, provider outcomes, and organizational outcomes. Sources included Medline, SAGE, Embase, PsycINFO, and PubMed, searched from the earliest date available through March 30th, 2015. Initially 4,556 articles were identified, with 4,520 removed. This process left a final set of 36 articles, all which included pre-/postintervention designs implemented in live clinical/hospital settings. We also conducted a moderation analysis based on the number of items contained in each protocol to understand if the length of a protocol led to systematic changes in effect sizes of the outcome variables.Results:Meta-analyses were conducted on 3...