HANDS Project

HANDS Project Initiative

What is the HANDS Initiative?

It is a project that has been underway since mid 1990s and is focused on creating a viable standardized interdisciplinary plan of care Method that provides the patient’s current history in “short story form” wherever he/she enters the system, allowing clinicians to access information to assist with immediate and future decisions about care THROUGH CONTINOUS STUDY AND REFINEMENT UNDER REAL TIME CONDITIONS.

Mission & Vision

• To continuously refine the standardized HANDS Plan of Care Method
• Make HANDS available for widespread and effective use by clinicians
• To ensure interconnectivity with all EHRs (vender neutral)
• Use HANDS infrastructure to enable a consistent approach to evidence based practice (EVP)

National Vision For Interdisciplinary Team

Nurses (and interdisciplinary team) will use the HANDS standardized Method of documenting and communicating the patient’s plan of care and progress toward outcomes at handovers.

National Vision For Patient

Wherever and whenever a patient enters the health system, one’s plan of care history is readily accessible to support future decisions about care.

Current Funding by AHRQ(2004-2007)

• HIT Support for Safe Nursing Care
• Multi-site study (8 unit –4 organizations) and refinement of the Hands-on Automated Nursing Data System (HANDS) Method.
• R01 HS015054-Health and Human Services, Agency of Health Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Mandates Met

• American Nurses Association’s CNPii, (Committee on Nursing Practice Information Infrastructure) GOAL to generate electronic interoperable nursing data across organizations
• Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization’s (JCAHO) Plan of Care Standards
• JCAHO’s 2006 Safety Goal (JCAHO, 2006) for Hand-offs.
  Requirement:
  To “Implement a standardized approach to “hand-off” communications, including an opportunity to ask and respond to questions.”

Contact Information

Gail M. Keenan, PhD, RN
Principal Investigator and Associate Professor
gmkeenan@uic.edu, 312.996.7970

Mary Mandeville
Project Director
mandevil@uic.edu, 312.996.3038

University of Illinois at Chicago
College of Nursing
845 S. Damen
Chicago, IL 60612