Authors

  1. Northway, Tracie MSN, RN
  2. Krahn, Gordon RRT
  3. Thibault, Kristine BScN, RN
  4. Yarske, Lisa BScN, RN, CNCCP(C)
  5. Yuskiv, Nataliya MD, MPH
  6. Kissoon, Niranjan MD, FRCP(C), FAAP, FCCM, FACPE
  7. Collet, Jean-Paul MD, PhD

Abstract

The article reports the long-term sustainability of a standardized transfer protocol from cardiac surgical suite to the pediatric intensive care unit. Using rapid process improvement technique, the original mean defect rate per handover decreased from 13.2 to 0 and 0.3, 12, and 24 months postimplementation, respectively. This study stresses the importance of long-term assessment to control for possible observation biases; it also illustrates a successful implementation strategy that used video recording to engage staff in identifying solutions to the observed defects.