Miscommunication is a leading cause of medical error and despite efforts to improve communication, the level of incidents remains high. In fact, recent information from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that communication breakdowns during handoffs contribute to approximately 70 percent of deaths caused by medical error in hospitals and healthcare organizations.But with the help of web and cloud-based tools, some hospitals are managing to cut communication errors that occur during patient handoffs by nearly one-third, saving countless lives and millions in cost avoidance.According to a study which includes the results of the technologys integration into multiple hospitals, centers such as Boston Childrens saw a 30 percent reduction in preventable adverse events during patient handoffs by employing communication tools from the I-PASS Patient Safety Institute, which standardizes the patient handoff process during nurse shift changes.We found that implementation of the I-PASS Handoff Bundle across nine academic hospitals was associated with a 23% relative reduction in the rate of all medical errors and a 30% relative reduction in the rate of preventable adverse events. We also found significant decreases in rates of specific types of medical errors, including diagnostic errors, the authors of the report note.

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