Emergency Medical Services to Emergency Department Patient Handover: A Delphi Study of Interprofessional Content Expectations

Emergency Medical Service (EMS) patient handover impacts subsequent Emergency Department (ED) care. This study sought to determine the core and provider specific handover elements necessary for EMS to ED patient handover. In addition, the study examined the significance of patient acuity on handover content expectations. Prior to this research, there was no evidence-based guidance regarding information necessary for continuation of prehospital care. A 2 round modified Delphi method was used to collect interprofessional expert opinion. The panel of emergency medicine experts (emergency medicine physicians, emergency registered nurses, and paramedics) participated in 2 surveys where they determined the importance of given elements to 5 different acuity level patient scenarios. The findings show profession did not affect content expectation group means (Round I p=0.91, Round II p=0.44). Therefore the possibility exists for a prehospital handover element checklist to meet the needs of all emergency care providers involved in prehospital transfer of care. Ultimately 3 EMS handover content lists were generated: universal, interprofessional, and acuity. The universal list has 20 elements, interprofessional consensus has 17 elements, and the acuity list has 16. These results highlight the difference between interprofessional handover expectations and National EMS Education Standards