Human Factors and Perioperative Improvement: Handover Checklists and Protocols for Safe and Reliable Care Transitions

Key Points

• A checklist is a complex sociotechnical intervention that requires careful attention to instrument design, implementation, and identification of essential task-oriented skills.

• Successful implementation of checklists must leverage human factors engineering and implementation science principles to promote “stickiness,” or habit formation, and to mediate successful culture change.

• Creating a standardized handover checklist and following a structured process for handover increases the accuracy of information transferred, increases positive clinician perception of handover quality, and may improve patient outcomes.