From the ICU to the ward: cross-checking of the physician’s transfer report by intensive care nurses

Abstract

Errors in ICU transfer reports are frequent and may be potentially harmful. ICU nurses may help to effectively and accurately intercept those inaccuracies, and therefore reduce the exportation of errors from the ICU to the ward.

Intensive care readmission: A contemporary review of the literature

“…The need for ward staff to develop the unique skills needed to care for post-ICU patients has been previously highlighted as an important strategy to help minimise the readmission rate (Russell, 1999). Involving ICU and ward staff in the ICU discharge process may help improve patient outcomes and avoid adverse events such as readmission Perren et al, 2008).…”

Medication issues experienced by patients and carers after discharge from the intensive care unit

“…The key MRPs reported in the literature are medication accuracy, drug omissions, and (dis)continuation of drugs at discharge [5]. All these errors were found in our study, such as mistakes made in the strength of the dose at the prescription, omission of antidepressants, and unnecessary continuation of PPIs.…”

“…Our observational data show that chronic medications are commonly not continued during an ICU admission [3,10], and discharge communications from the ICU often contain errors [5]. We report that cumulatively, the number of drugs prescribed increased numerically at the end of the ICU admission, but then returned to ICU admission numbers at FC interview.…”

“…It is known that medication errors occur disproportionately because care is transferred between settings [3][4][5]. The act of medication reconciliation (creating and communicating the most complete record of all medications the patient is currently taking) has been shown to dramatically reduce medication errors in patients transferring from the ICU [6].…”

Year in review in Intensive Care Medicine, 2008: III. Paediatrics, Ethics, outcome research and critical care organization, sedation, pharmacology and miscellanea

“…In a prospective observational study, Perren et al [56] assessed whether cross-checking of the physician ICU transfer report by ICU nurses may reduce transfer report errors. About 123 patients were randomly selected at discharge from the ICU and physician ICU transfer reports were cross-checked by nurses using defined review criteria.…”