Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “give and write shift handover for my patients”

Here is the best way to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

30 min
typically, every day
35%
of the time can be automated
Some setup
to set up

Fix 1 of 1

Software feature

Hand over from a structured handoff report in the EHR

A structured handoff report (I-PASS or SBAR) that pulls vitals, meds and to-dos from the chart means you only add what changed. Some EHRs now offer an AI-drafted shift summary to review.

Typically saves about 30% of the time30 min to set up
  1. 1Ask nursing informatics for the unit's handoff report or I-PASS tool in the EHR.
  2. 2Ask whether AI shift summaries are available or in pilot.
  3. 3Update the free-text sections during the shift, not at the end.
  4. 4Use the printed or on-screen report for bedside handover.
  5. 5Only use tools your organization has approved and covered by a HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA) for anything with patient information.

Tools: Your EHR (Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen or similar)

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

Nurse

HourLeak · the 8-minute work audit

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Other common tasks for Nurses