A recent study published in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine characterized verbal handoffs for urgent interfacility transfers of children to the pediatric ICU (PICU) and compared these characteristics with known elements of I-PASS. The study details how the I-PASS handoff program has consistently been shown to reduce adverse events related to interfacility transport as the authors look to evaluate the program for PICU transfers. In the study, audio-recorded calls between referring clinicians and PICU fellows and patients’ electronic health records (EHRs) were studied to determine if I-PASS is applicable to interfacility referral communication for urgent transfers to the PICU. The study reviewed interfacility referral calls for 49 of the 202 patients urgently transferred to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital (IU SFCH) PICU. The study showed that many elements of I-PASS are applicable to interfacility referral communication for urgent transfers to the PICU and identified opportunities for potential improvement in clinician-to-clinician verbal handoff. Additionally, the study also identified unique aspects of urgent interfacility handoffs to the PICU that must be considered if developing effective interventions to improve transfers to a higher level of care.

Read the article to learn more: https://journals.lww.com/pccmjournal/abstract/9900/interfacility_referral_communication_for_picu.324.aspx