The Handover from Intensive Care Unit to General Ward: Baseline Performance and Participatory Design of an Electronic Follow-Up Plan

The transfer of patients from intensive care unit (ICU) to general ward involves risk to patient health. To mitigate this risk the present study investigates the current use of follow-up plans in the handover from ICU to general ward and proposes a novel design of follow-up plans. On the basis of a record audit we find that follow-up plans exist for only 16% of the audited transfers, that these plans are rarely used, and that 25% of the patients with a plan die within 24 hours of their transfer. In a subsequent series of participatory-design workshops with ICU and ward nurses we devised an electronic follow-up plan that consists of an attend-to list rather than a checklist. The attend-to list specifies the issues of concern but leaves the process of attaining them for the general-ward nurses to decide, thereby acknowledging and utilizing their expertise.