Better handoffs.
Safer care.

• The mission of the I-PASS Study Group is to improve patient safety by standardizing provider communication, with a specific focus on improving transitions of care. Members of the I-PASS Study Group include health services researchers, medical education experts, patients and families, nurses, and clinicians. The I-PASS Study Group oversees research projects regarding communication and patient safety.
• To achieve widespread adoption and sustainment of the evidence-based I-PASS Handoff program, members of the I-PASS Study Group co-founded the I-PASS Institute, a company dedicated to providing hospitals with assistance implementing I-PASS. For help implementing the I-PASS handoff program in your institution, please visit the I-PASS Institute website at www.ipassinstitute.com or email info@ipassinstitute.com.
• The work of the I-PASS Study Group focuses on the following:


• The I-PASS Study was a landmark multi-site research communication and patient safety study involving nine institutions in the US and Canada. In that study, we found that implementation of a bundle of interventions to improve resident physician communication during handoffs of patient care (called the I-PASS Handoff Bundle) was associated with a 30% reduction in preventable adverse events—medical errors that result in harm to patients. Implementation was also associated with improvements in verbal and written communication without a negative impact on provider workflow or handoff duration. The curricular materials developed for use in the I-PASS Study are all available free of charge by visiting the materials request section of this website.


• The I-PASS Handoff Bundle is the award-winning intervention tested in the I-PASS Study. It includes resources and information about and is actively being adapted for use in multiple different hospital settings and types of patient care handoff and transitions.


• The I-PASS Consultation Program offers mentored implementation of I-PASS Handoff curricular materials on a consultative basis. The primary goal of the consultation program is to assist departments, hospitals and health systems in implementing the I-PASS Handoff method to improve patient safety using a train-the-trainer approach. Consultation arrangements range from 1 day consultations to ongoing support of 18 months or longer.


• The I-PASS Mentored Implementation Program is a collaboration with the Society for Hospital Medicine funded by AHRQ.The goal of the program is to facilitate implementation of the I-PASS Handoff Bundle in internal medicine and pediatric residency programs at a select group of 32 hospitals across the United States. Each site will be paired with a team of mentors from the I-PASS Study Group to help guide them in implementing I-PASS Handoff techniques.


• The Patient and Family Centered I-PASS Study is a multi-site research study funded by PCORI with the goal of improving patient safety by enhancing the quality of communication between physicians, nurses, and families and to better integrate families into all aspects of daily decision making in hospitals. In the study we will test the effectiveness of a bundle of communication interventions based on the original I-PASS Study – Family-Centered I-PASS. Our hypothesis is that more effective communication between health care team members and families will significantly improve both patient safety and the patient and family experience.