Handoffs are a critical component of patient care and are essential to patient safety during transitions. Handoffs are expected to be done in the IPASS format as follows:
- I: Illness severity – Stable, “watcher,” unstable
- P: Patient summary – includes events leading up to admission, succinct summary of relative hospital course, current ongoing assessment and plan.
- A: Action list – To do list overnight
- S: Situation awareness and contingency planning – understand what the active issues are and plan for what might happen overnight.
- S: Synthesis by receiver – The person receiving sign out will be able to summarize what they heard, ask clarifying questions, and re-state any key action or to do items.