Aged care patient safety improved with big yellow envelope?
The North East Valley Division of General Practice (NEVDGP) in Victoria is one of seven organisations across Australia chosen by the Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Healthcare to improve the safety of patients by improving ‘clinical handover’ communication.
Clinical handover is when the care and responsibility of a patient is transferred from one place to another or one person to another. The quality of this handover directly affects the quality of health care that people receive.
NEVDGP will trial the use of a ‘Transfer to Hospital Envelope’. This is a big bright yellow envelope in which to place important medical documents and other information when a resident of an aged care home needs to go to hospital.
An important feature of the envelope is a checklist of what information should be sent to hospital.
The $160,000 funding will trial the envelope system with 28 aged care homes and five major public hospitals.
