After anaesthesia New insight into how patients should be handled and transferred after major surgery can help improve healthcare protocols and save lives. Climate Change and Environment © Thinkstock Transferring patients between anaesthesia and the recovery room or intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex task that requires impeccable handover practices and information exchange. The EU-funded project 'Handover practices assuring patient safety at care transitions from anaesthesia' (SAFE-Handover) outlined strategies that ensure the safety of surgery patients during transfer. The project thoroughly studied patient handover and interviewed experts to document the best handover practices. It also worked on mechanisms to evaluate quality and safety of patient handover during transfer focusing on technical aspects (information accuracy, completeness) as well as non-technical ones (decision making, teamwork). Moreover, SAFE-Handover examined the effectiveness of various handover practices from the point of view of safety, drawing valuable conclusions that could eventually help streamline patient transfers in critical situations. Among its important achievements, the project articulated different critical considerations that must be addressed to improve handover practices, including a need for structural handover and formal training. Such training could involve safety-related aspects such as barriers to speaking up and unclear transitions of responsibility. Recommendations for training in effective handover communication were also identified. With all the valuable recommendations and guidelines emerging from the project, transfer of patients during critical times when anaesthesia is involved may be upgraded in hospitals across Europe. The result is improved healthcare and an expected increase in the number of saved lives.
