Abstract

Prolonged boarding times in the emergency department negatively impact patient outcomes, leading to increased mortality, infection rates, and decreased patient satisfaction. Effective and timely communication during handoffs between healthcare professionals is crucial to minimize these delays and improve overall patient care, with the use of standardized handoff tools significantly reducing adverse events and length of hospital stay. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project investigated the impact of implementing a handoff tool on decreasing emergency room to medical surgical unit disposition time. Kurt Lewin's three-step model of change, popular among healthcare organizations, was used as the theoretical framework for this quality improvement project. A pre-post comparison methodology was used to assess the impact of a handoff tool on the time it takes to transfer patients from the emergency department to the medical-surgical unit, once a bed was assigned.

Author Details

Kyle Disney, DNP and Beyli Disney, DNP

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quality Improvement

Research Approach

Translational Research/Evidence-based Practice

Keywords:

Patient Handoffs, Emergency Departments, Disposition Time

Advisor

Joanne Masella

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Nova Southeastern University

Degree Year

2024

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2024-08-28

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