Clinical handover
Patient Safety
Definition. Clinical handover is the transfer of professional responsibility and accountability for some or all aspects of a patient’s care to another person or team.
Explanation
Handovers are high-risk moments for information loss. Reviews of intraoperative anaesthesia handoffs show variable use of structured tools (Abraham et al., 2021), while bedside nursing handover can improve patient perceptions and organisational outcomes (Daicampi et al., 2025). Paramedic roles at hospital arrival are another critical interface (Flynn et al., 2017).
Structured formats such as SBAR or I-PASS, protected time and patient involvement reduce omissions.
Related concepts
Medical error Patient flow Human factors Patient participation
Read on The Health Topics
- The Hand off Literature and Its Future Research Agenda
- How Bedside Handover Boosts Hospital Efficiency and Patient Safety
- Bridging the Gap: Evaluating Enhanced Paramedic Roles in Hospital Handover for Time-Critical Emergencies
References
Abraham, J., Pfeifer, E., Doering, M., Avidan, M. S., & Kannampallil, T. (2021). Systematic review of intraoperative anesthesia handoffs and handoff tools. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 132(6), 1563–1575. https://doi.org/10.1213/ANE.0000000000005367
Daicampi, C., Veronese, M., & Cesaro, E. (2025). Impact of Bedside Handover on Patient Perceptions and Hospital Organizational Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Journal of Nursing Management, 2025, Article ID 3803491. https://doi.org/10.1155/jonm/3803491
Flynn, D., Francis, R., Robalino, S., Lally, J., Snooks, H., Rodgers, H., McClelland, G., Ford, G. A., & Price, C. (2017). A review of enhanced paramedic roles during and after hospital handover of stroke, myocardial infarction and trauma patients. BMC Emergency Medicine, 17 (1), 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12873-017-0118-5
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Clinical handover. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/clinical-handover/