Table 2.

Study characteristics and outcomes sorted by effect on patient safety, study design and year

Study	Design	Setting	How SBAR was used	Patient outcome defined as	Effect
Field et al 49 2011	RCT	Nursing home	Telephone communication from nurse to doctor—anticoagulation management	INR values within the target range	▲
Randmaa et al 37 2014	CCT	Hospital	Patient hand-off—physician and nurses	CIRS events (communication errors)	▲
De Meester et al 55* 2013	BAS	Hospital	Telephone communication from nurse to doctor—deteriorating/status change of a patient	(1) Unexpected death and (2) ICU admission	▲
Pineda54 2015	BAS	Hospital	Patient hand-of f—nurses	Patient falls	▲
Devereaux et al 57 2016	BAS	Nursing home	Telephone communication from nurse to doctor—deteriorating/status change of a patient	(1) 30-day readmissions, (2) transfers to hospital and (3) avoidable hospitalisations	▲
Haig et al 51 2006	BAS	Hospital	Team communication in general	(1) Adverse patient and (2) drug events	△
Andreoli et al 52 2010	BAS	Rehabilitation clinic	Team communication in general	(1) Falls severity (four levels), (2) near-miss reporting	△
Freitag and Carroll53 2011	BAS	Hospital	Patient hand-off—nurses	(1) Inpatient fall rate, (2) restrained patients rate and (3) catheter-associated UTI	△
Christie and Robinson41 2009	BAS	Hospital	Patient hand-off— physician and nurses	(1) Hospital mortality, (2) adverse events, (3) cardiac arrests, (4) MRSA bacteraemias	△
Field et al 49 2011	RCT	Nursing home	Telephone communication from nurse to doctor—anticoagulation management	Preventable AE related to warfarin therapy	○
Telem et al 50 2011	CCT	Hospital	Patient hand-off—physician	Sentinel events	○
De Meester et al 55 2013	BAS	Hospital	Telephone communication from nurse to doctor—deteriorating/status change of a patient	Call of cardiac arrest team	○
Jarboe56 2015	BAS	Nursing homes	Telephone communication from nurse to doctor—deteriorating/status change of a patient	(1) Overall number of transfers to acute care hospitals, (2) types of transfers by clinical condition criteria, (3) transfers resulting in hospitalisation	○
Andreoli et al 52 2010	BAS	Rehabilitation clinic	Team communication in general	Falls incidence	∇

If a study reported outcomes with different effects on patient safety, the study results are listed separately.

▲, statistically significant evidence for improvement; △, descriptive evidence for improvement (no statistical test reported); ○, no significant evidence of a change; ∇, descriptive reduction of patient safety.

*And nursing hand-off (between shifts).

AE, adverse event; BAS, before–after study; CCT, clinical controlled trial; CIRS, critical incident reporting system; ICU, intensive care unit; INR, international normalised ratio; MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; RCT, randomised controlled trial; SBAR, situation, background, assessment and recommendation; UTI, urinary tract infection.