Information Transfer During Postoperative Handovers in the Post-anaesthesia Care Unit

Quality of Postoperative Patient Handover in the Post-anaesthesia Care Unit: A Prospective Analysis

Anaesthesiology plays a key role in promoting safe perioperative care. This includes the perioperative phase in the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) where problems with incomplete information transfer may have a negative impact on patient safety and can lead to patient harm. The objective of this study is to analyse information transfer during postoperative handovers in the PACU.

With a self-developed checklist information transfer during postoperative handovers will be documented and subsequently compared with patient information in anaesthesia records.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All patients transferred to the PACU after surgery

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age < 18 years
• patients who have surgery under local anaesthesia or in standby
• patients who are transferred to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) after surgery