Bringing I-PASS to the Bedside: A Communication Bundle to Improve Patient Safety and Experience

The investigators propose implementing a bundle of communication interventions - Patient and
Family-Centered I-PASS - to improve the quality of information exchange between physicians,
nurses, and families, and to better integrate families into all aspects of daily decision
making in hospitals. The investigators believe that doing so has the potential to
substantially improve both patient safety and patient and family experience.

The specific aims of the project are - To test the hypothesis that a) rates of serious
medical errors (including both preventable adverse events and near misses), determined both
by an established, systematic daily hospital surveillance methodology (primary outcome) and
family reports (secondary outcome); as well as b) poor verbal handoffs during family centered
rounds (FCRs - assessed through direct observation - secondary outcome); rates of discordant
understanding of the care plan between healthcare providers and families (assessed through
survey instruments - secondary outcome); and rates of family (primary outcome) and nurse and
physician dissatisfaction (secondary outcomes) will decrease following implementation of
Family-Centered I-PASS, as compared with current practice.