MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Brian M. Wong, MD, FRCPC
Staff Physician, Division of General Internal Medicine
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Director, Continuing Education & Quality Improvement
Associate Director, Centre for Quality Improvement & Patient Safety (C-QuIPS)
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Lisa Richardson, MD., MA, FRCPC
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto,
Division of General Internal Medicine, University Health Network,
HoPingKong Centre for Excellence in Education and Practice, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Our study sought to characterize how many clinically important issues that occur during the overnight on-call period were handed over and discussed by the on-call resident with the daytime medical team. For example, if a patient developed chest pain in the middle of the night and the on-call resident evaluated the patient, did the resident then 'handover' this issue to the team the next morning so that they could follow up and make sure that the patient receives timely care? In our study, we found that approximately 40% of these issues did not get handed over. This finding was consistent across 2 major Canadian academic teaching hospitals.
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