RT Journal
A1 Cohen MD, Ilan R, Garrett L, LeBaron C, Christianson MK
T1 The earlier the longer: Disproportionate time allocated to patients discussed early in attending physician handoff sessions
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 2012
FD December 10
VO 172
IS 22
SP 1762
OP 1764
DO 10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.65
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/2013.jamainternmed.65
AB 
Handoffs in hospitals have been widely recognized by both regulators and researchers as a locus of potential communication failure, with substantial risks to patient safety and quality of care.1- 2 By conservative estimate, there are over half a billion patient handoff discussions annually in US hospitals. Most empirical studies have been performed in shift-change settings, where most handoffs occur, and where it is typical that responsibility for multiple patients is transferred during a single handoff session. However, theoretical analysis in the literature is entirely focused on how best to hand off a single patient.3- 5 As a result, research has overlooked what has been labeled the portfolio problem: how best to allocate across multiple patients the scarce time available for a handoff session.6