PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Vilmaris Quinones Cardona
AU  - Alison LaBadie
AU  - David B Cooperberg
AU  - Alan Zubrow
AU  - Suzanne M Touch
TI  - Improving the neonatal team handoff process in a level IV NICU: reducing interruptions and handoff duration
AID  - 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-001014
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - BMJ Open Quality
PG  - e001014
VI  - 10
IP  - 1
4099  - http://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/1/e001014.short
4100  - http://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/10/1/e001014.full
SO  - BMJ Open Qual2021 Jan 01; 10
AB  - Background Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients are at increased risk for handoff communication failures due to complexity and prolonged length of stay. We report a quality initiative aimed at reducing avoidable interruptions during neonatal handoffs while monitoring handoff duration and provider satisfaction.Methods Observational time series between August 2015 and March 2018 in an academic level IV NICU. NICU I-PASS and process changes were implemented using plan–do–study–act cycle, and statistical process control charts were used in the analysis. Unmatched preintervention and postintervention satisfaction surveys were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests.Results There was special cause variation in the mean number of avoidable interruptions per handoff from 4 to 0.3 (92% reduction). The mean duration of handoff was reduced ~1 min/patient. Provider satisfaction with the quality of handoffs also improved from a mean of 3.36 to 3.75 on a 1–5 Likert scale (p=0.049).Conclusions Standardisation of NICU handoff with NICU I-PASS and process changes led to the sustained reduction in avoidable interruptions with the added benefit of reduced handoff length and improved provider satisfaction.