As someone who has studied healthcare handoffs for a while, I can’t stop thinking about the Presidential one coming up. I see I’m not the only one. But this is not like any handoff. My nerdy 🧵 #MedTwitter #Inauguration2021
Handoffs come in many flavors in medicine. In general, the highest risk handoffs are when the patient is really sick and the handoff is permanent and not temporary. So in some ways, yes has elements of a risky handoff. America is definitely sick and the handoff is permanent.
Ideal handoffs are a transfer of content and a transfer of professional responsibility. The goal of content transfer: to achieve a shared mental model or shared vision of the patient. Professional responsibility usu= does receiver accept? Now it’s been will sender relinquish?
While both parts key, the transfer of professional responsibility is a must. The transfer of content also rests on the quality and accuracy of information transferred, the sender investment to transfer the information, and the receivers ability to understand & act on it.
In this case, there is concern no or sparse content is transferred. Even with a checklist, there may reason to question the content. In fact, too much dependency on content during any handoff could actually harm decision making of the person taking over due to an anchoring bias.