Patients’ experiences with information sharing, relations, and involvement during cross-sectoral handovers

Patient handovers are transfers of responsibility for patient care or elements of care from one healthcare professional or group to another. The most significant handovers occur across healthcare sectors and involve patients with multiple concurrent diseases. Handovers increase the risks of maltreatment, delay, negligence, mistrust, dissatisfaction with care and misuse of resources. The need for safe transfers increases with increased specialization of care urging better knowledge on this field. This project aims to explore frequently transferred patients’ experiences with information sharing, relations, and patient involvement during cross-sectoral handovers. These factors are relevant facilitators for safe handovers, and relevant subjects regarding patients’ information for how to make better use of these facilitators during handovers. We will systematically select 1000 frequently transferred patients via administrative data. Their medical histories will be assessed by their GPs who assist selection of the 100 most informative patients for structured telephone interviews. Based on these interviews around 10-15 of the patients will be selected for an in-depth interview using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach.
The PhD project is part of a larger research project developing novel interventions to facilitate safe handovers aiming to reduce the above-mentioned risks.