#handover project

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Dr. Paul Barach provides his expertise as a consultant to numerous hospitals and health-care agencies as the principal at J Bara Innovation, Inc. Along with Julie Johnson and Helen Haskell, Dr. Paul Barach developed the concept for the Learning From Our Patients project to improve health care through collecting and filming patient stories and the input of patient perspectives. Learning From Our Patients seeks to listen to patients compassionately to understand why so many preventable errors still occur in the health-care profession today. The project's collected patient interviews are supplemented by interviews with health-care providers and researchers. Using the Harvard Business Review case-based method, a book of case studies is being produced in addition to an interactive website and a documentary film. These products will act as learning tools for students as well as current practitioners in the health-care field so that medical errors will occur less frequently in the future. For more information on the Learning From Our Patients project or to contribute a story about medical harm to the project, visit www.learningfromourpatients.com.

An expert in clinical safety, Dr. Paul Barach helped secure a $5 million grant through the European Union to explore patient safety improvement methods targeted to medical discharges and transitions. He led the initiative, called Improving the Continuity of Patient Care Through Identification and Implementation of Novel Patient Handoff Processes in Europe, or the HANDOVER Project, in his capacity as principal investigator. The position was part of Dr. Paul Barach’s academic tenure with the Utrecht University Medical Center. In their final report, HANDOVER Project officials made several policy, educational and finance recommendations to the European Union concerning how best to reduce patient re admissions to hospital after discharge and overall improvement in patient transitions. The report’s initial advice emphasizes the need to standardize clinical handover practices throughout healthcare. Further, the researchers express their hope that the European Union member states will broadly implement HANDOVER Project best practices, based on compelling real-world evidence. The final report also calls on stakeholder groups like hospitals, medical societies, and patient organizations to collaborate with the public in optimizing patient handover procedures. In this way, the researchers seek to reform the system using inclusive and democratically inspired methods. The full report and access to the scientific papers that have been published from this study can be found at www.handover.eu.