63 Use of the SBARR in handovers from the ambulance service to the emergency department

Aim One of the main causes of adverse events in the healthcare chain is communication failure. Information loss from handovers could lead to a prolonged stay in the Emergency Department (ED) and reduced patient safety. Objectives in this study were to evaluate the accurate use of the SBARR and to evaluate the influence of the (appropriate) use of the SBARR on the agreement between the probable diagnosis after handover and the final diagnosis and time of stay at the ED. Method Data on handovers were collected through observations in 4 hospitals in Amsterdam, from February until May 2017. Subsequently multiple interventions to improve the use of SBARR were implemented (education, newsletters, e-learning, posters and notebooks). This was followed by a second observation period from September until November 2017. Results A total of 990 handovers was observed. 45 Handovers were excluded because these were transfers patients from other hospitals or patients refused to participate. Of the remaining 945 handovers, 14 (1,5%) used only one element of the SBARR and 242 (25,6%) of handovers used 2 elements. In over half of cases (567, 60%) 3 elements were used. In 107 handovers (11,3%) 4 elements where used and in 15 handovers (1,6%) all 5 elements where used. For the appropriate use of the SBARR, there were 7 handovers which didn’t start with the S, 267 (28,3%) which only consisted of the S, 451 (47,7) with the SB order, 197 (20,8%) SBA, 17 handovers (1,8% SBAR and 6 handovers (0,6%) SBARR. Other analyses are currently in progress. Conclusion The use of the SBARR in these observations was suboptimal. With further analysis, we want to study if this also has a important effect on patient oriented outcomes, like length of stay in the emergency department. Conflict of interest None Funding This project is funded by ZonMw (The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development).