Communication is an important factor in determining patient outcomes, patient experiences, and healthcare costs, both positively and negatively. In fact, communication breakdown accounts for two thirds of sentinel events, the most serious of errors reported to the Joint Commission, making it the leading cause of medical errors (Starmer et al., 2014). The Institute of Medicine (1999) conservatively estimates that between 44,000 and 98,000 patients die each year from medical errors. More recent estimates predicted this number to be upwards of 400,000 deaths annually, making medical errors the third leading cause of death in the United States (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Miscommunication and handoff errors are the primary point these errors occur. The electronic health record (EHR) provides a platform for communication with checkpoints …show more content…
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