[Patient handover involves numerous safety risks].

Abstract

Modern patient care requires collaboration among health-care workers belonging to various functional units, departments and hospitals. When the responsibility for patients is handed over, information is easily lost. This literature review identifies problems in patient handover situations and proposes solutions to these. We reviewed 417 papers and the analysis comprises 29 papers. The paper points out numerous problems in connection with the transfer of responsibility, showing the importance of focusing on patient handover as a vulnerable phase in patient care.