Evaluation of Intershift Handover in Emergency Department

Objective: Intershift handover (IH) in emergency departments can lead to serious distress in terms of both patient and doctor safety. In the study; it was aimed to determine how patients handed over between the shifts in the emergency services and the deficiencies, defects and errors occurred during this process. Methods: This study was conducted with 462 emergency doctors at 62 private, state, training research and university hospitals in Istanbul, Edirne, Kirklareli and Tekirdag cities where almost one fourth of Turkish population live, by interwiewing face-to-face between April 2016 and June 2016. Results: There were statistically significant difference between the groups who said that the transfer quality depends on the transferer doctor and lecturer and the other groups (respectively p<0.05). 98.1% (n = 453) of the physicians stated that they completely or partially agree with that; the deficiencies during handover the effect negatively the treatment of the patient (p<0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, it is obvious that; the intershift handover in emergency department is vital. By reducing the number of mistakes made during this period, the quality of treatment of patients can be increased. In order to achieve this, we also think that it would be beneficial to give education to emergency service doctors about patient handover and to use a standardized intershift patient handover form.