Rethinking the hand-over process

The hand-over process is often described as the clinical hand-over of patient information and transfer of responsibility from one healthcare provider to another. One important hindrance in this hand-over lies in insufficient interprofessional communication where clinical information about the patient's situation may be missed during the process (Bost et al, 2010).

Research regarding the hand-over process is limited and focuses on the handover between the ambulance and the emergency department (ED) (Suserud and Bruce, 2003; Bruce and Suserud, 2005; Fairbanks et al, 2007; Jenkin et al, 2007; Bost et al, 2010). However, the hand-over may begin at the scene of an accident if the fire or police service are the first responder and they hand-over the responsibility for the injured to the ambulance service (Elmqvist et al, 2010). As a matter of fact, the hand-over already starts when the injured is handing over the responsibility for their own body to the first responders (Ahl et al, 2006; Elmqvist et al, 2008).