Speaker: Christopher Landrigan, MD, MPH | Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital

Speaker: Marshall Burkhart | VP, Client Engagement, I-PASS Institute

This session will review the data regarding the role of miscommunications and handoff failures in patient safety failures in hospitals. It will discuss a series of studies conducted over the past 15 years regarding I-PASS, a program designed to increase the reliability of handoffs that has been found to significantly reduce rates of miscommunication, medical errors, and preventable harms to patients. It will address the challenges and opportunities of scaling the program across health systems, with the aim not only of improving patient safety, but of making high reliability principles a tangible reality for front line clinicians.

Learning Objectives:

1. To review the data on the role handoffs play in patient safety failures

2. To discuss the evidence base behind I-PASS, a program shown to improve handoffs in multiple settings, across disciplines and specialties

3. To discuss how to implement I-PASS at a system level, striking a balance between creating a shared structure and language, while concurrently addressing the pragmatic needs for specialty and care-area specific customization of the program.