Table.

Adjusted Effect of Web-Based Handoff Tool and Training of Health Care Professionals on Rates of Medical Errors

Outcome	Rate of Medical Errors per 100 Patient-days (95% CI)a		IRR (95% CI)	P Value
	Time Period 1 (Before Intervention) (n = 2406)	Time Periods 2 and 3 (After Intervention) (n = 3001)
Total medical errors	3.56 (1.70–7.44)	1.76 (0.93–3.31)	0.49 (0.42–0.58)	<.001
Medical errors owing to failures in communication	2.88 (1.22–6.82)	1.15 (0.76–1.74)	0.40 (0.25–0.63)	<.001
Medical errors owing to mistakes in handoff	2.47 (1.00–6.07)	0.95 (0.56–1.61)	0.38 (0.27–0.56)	<.001
Medical errors that caused harm (preventable adverse events)b	0.49 (0.25–0.86)	0.26 (0.10–0.53)	0.53 (0.19–1.47)	.22
Nonpreventable adverse eventsb	0.39 (0.18–0.73)	0.74 (0.44–1.15)	1.89 (0.82–4.38)	.14
Subgroup Analyses b
Medical errors by type of handoff
End of shift	6.93 (5.36–8.76)	3.59 (2.55–4.87)	0.52 (0.35–0.78)	.001
End of rotation	1.16 (0.64–1.92)	0.63 (0.29–1.18)	0.55 (0.23–1.13)	.18
Medical errors by service
Medical	3.18 (2.45–4.05)	1.30 (0.85–1.87)	0.41 (0.26–0.65)	<.001
Surgical	13.11 (7.69–20.63)	5.45 (3.40–8.20)	0.11 (0.06–0.22)	<.001

Abbreviation: IRR, incident rate ratio.

^aExcept where noted below, results clustered by health care professional and controlled for service and patients’ age, sex, race/ethnicity, length of stay, and diagnosis-related group weight.

^bUnadjusted results shown, as low number of events precluded adjusted analyses.