Multitasking during patient handover in the recovery room.

Background: Loss of information occurs frequently during handover and affects the continuity of care. Improving handovers is therefore a key patient safety goal. After surgery, the patient is transferred to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU), and handover to the nurse includes both handover of monitoring equipment (connecting electrocardiogram, calibrating arterial lines, infusion pumps, etc.) and patient/procedure-specific information. Multitasking is likely to increase the risk of information loss during handover. It is unknown to what extent the transfer of equipment and information occurs simultaneously or sequentially in daily practice.

Methods: A nationwide questionnaire on the subject of patient handover was returned by 494 health care practitioners concerned with handovers from operating room (OR) to PACU. In addition, 101 handovers from the OR to the PACU were videotaped in 2 academic hospitals (n = 20), 3 teaching hospitals (n = 43) and 1 community hospital (n = 38). The occurrence of simultaneous or sequential transfer of equipment and information was recorded by two independent observers.

Results: Simultaneous handover of equipment and information was the preference for a minority of respondents to the national survey (11%, 95% confidence interval, 8% to 14%). Self-reported simultaneous handover was 43% (39% to 47%). In the videotaped handovers, simultaneous handover was used for 65% (56% to 74%), which was even higher in the academic centers. The simultaneous handovers were no more than 0.2 minute faster than sequential handovers (P = 0.38).

Conclusions: In most videotaped handovers from OR to the PACU, there was simultaneous transfer of equipment and information. Although most health care providers are unaware of it, this form of multitasking during patient handover in the PACU is common. Future studies should evaluate whether this multitasking also leads to loss of critical patient information and reduced patient safety.