Anesthesia-handover Checklist and Perioperative Outcomes in Elderly

Summary

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It was estimated that more than 9 million patients undergo surgery with a complete anesthesia handover each year worldwide. Verbal handover from one anesthesiologist to another during surgery are being used in many hospitals; and there is no unified patient handover guideline at present. It is well ...

It was estimated that more than 9 million patients undergo surgery with a complete anesthesia handover each year worldwide. Verbal handover from one anesthesiologist to another during surgery are being used in many hospitals; and there is no unified patient handover guideline at present. It is well recognized that the transfer-of-care is a point of vulnerability where valuable patient information can be distorted and omitted. A previous study of the investigators showed that handover of anesthesia care was associated with a higher risk of delirium in elderly patients after major noncardiac surgery. The World Health Organization has included communication during patient care handovers among its top 5 patient safety initiatives. It is possible that an improved anesthesia-handover protocol may reduce the related adverse events. Many efforts have performed to optimize handover processes. However, handover quality between anesthesiologists has rarely been investigated. The investigators hypothesize that a well-designed, structured handover-checklist will improve handover quality and reduce the occurrence of postoperative complications.

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