Care transitions in the outpatient surgery preoperative process: facilitators and obstacles to information flow and their consequences
Patient care transitions have been shown to be critical points at which failure as well as recovery from potential failure may occur. The purpose of this research was to identify transitions in patient care and the flow of associated information at different steps in the outpatient surgery preoperative care process and, in turn, attempt to identify breakdowns in the information flow process and their ramifications. A study of one organizations preoperative process for outpatient surgery was conducted, employing four means of data collection to gather information on preoperative work processes: employee shadowing, patient shadowing, clinic observation, and dictated feedback. Various facilitators and obstacles in information flow were found to be present in the preoperative care process. Obstacles often resulted in negative consequences for healthcare providers and patients. Helping care providers understand how their actions affect the various elements of the preoperative process, through improved awareness, may be one way to improve information flow problems within the outpatient surgery process.
outpatient surgery awareness transitions of care handoffs patient safety