Morning Sign Out

Why Morning Sign Out? Sign Out the process in healthcare where patients are handed over to the next person/team taking care of them. The term is inclusive to all healthcare professionals, not only to physicians; nurses, pharmacists, case-workers, social workers, and several others all practice the art of signing out to each other. Its a critical process. One must accurately summarize who/what/why the patient is here, keeping the sign out simple enough so that the next person isnt flooded with irrelevant information, but thorough enough so the whole story can be well understood, and so good decisions can be made. Morning sign outs are particularly interesting. All of the activity, labs, studies, and data that had occurred in the last 24 hours are assessed, and the plan for a new day is formulated. Most major medical decisions happen during the day, so the morning sign out is often the launching point for the rest of the days events. As a society, there is a large divide between t...