Improvement in communication during patient handoff between areas from a children's hospital.

Introduction: Patient handoff is an interactive process including data communication and responsible transfer in order to safely maintain the continuity of care. Failure in this process may result in inadequate care and favor the occurrence of errors.

Objective: To implement a standardized instrument for patient handoff from the intensive care unit (ICU) to the intermediate-medium care unit (IMCU), and compare communication between health care providers before and after the intervention.