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Quality Improvement (Original Research)

Session: Utilization of the "Write Handoff" Feature within the Epic Electronic Medical Record service to Improve Nursing-to-Physician Communication on an Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit

Utilization of the "Write Handoff" Feature within the Epic Electronic Medical Record to Improve Nursing-to-Physician Communication on an Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit

Thursday, October 23, 2025
12:45 PM - 2:15 PM MT
Location: Kiosk 9

    Poster Presenter(s)

  • Michael Garmo, MD

    Resident Physician
    Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital
    West Bloomfield, Michigan

    • Co-Author(s)

  • Brandon Trivax, DO, MPH

    Attending Physician
    LMT Rehabilitation
    Royal Oak, Michigan

  • NO

    Nicholas Olen, DO

    Resident Physician
    Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital
    Royal Oak, Michigan

Disclosure(s):
Brandon Trivax, DO, MPH: No financial relationships to disclose
Background and/or Objectives: Utilization of standardized communication on Inpatient Rehabilitation Units (IPRU) is vital for nurse-to-physician communication and maintaining accuracy, safety, and efficiency. This is especially important when nursing staff is addressing urgent matters versus nonurgent concerns that can be addressed the following day. Prior to this study, the studied IPRU employed both mobile pagers and hand-written message boards for nurses to communicate nonurgent concerns which residents review each morning. Despite this system, there's been under-utilization of the messaging board, favoring the mobile chat paging system which is addressed by the on-call resident. Several factors disincentivize nurses from using the communication board including instant responses through the paging system and the distance from nurse stations to communication board. The objectives of this QI project are to employ the "Write Handoff" feature of the Epic Electronic Medical Record (EEMR) for nurse-to-physician nonurgent overnight communication.

Design: Prospective study

Setting : Sixty-four bed IPRU affiliated with a level 1 trauma quaternary care center

Participants : Resident physicians, nursing staff, educators.

Interventions: Education of overnight nursing staff on the new communication feature. Residents reviewed communications each morning and utilized the same feature to respond to requests.

Main Outcome Measures: Frequency of nonurgent pages overnight by nursing staff prior to and following nursing staff education of the Write Handoff feature. Nursing staff perception of ease of communicating through this new feature.

Results: The frequency of non-urgent pages overnight decreased. The nursing staff perception of ease of communicating increased with implementation of the "Write Handoff" feature.

Conclusions: A standardized communication system employed through EEMR reduced the number of non-urgent pages overnight to residents on call and improved perception of ease of communication by nursing staff. Continued education on the new system to overnight nursing staff will ensure new staff members are aware of its benefits.