A national survey of medical morning handover report in Australian hospitals

In reply: Our national survey was specifically confined to medical morning handover report, one of many forms of clinical handover.1 The clinical governance area may have only recently recognised the importance of clinical handover, but it has been a topical issue for many years in the clinical arena, particularly in the United States.2 While Australia may be leading the way in international collaborations, our survey suggests that this is not translating into clinical practice. Rather than commissions and councils providing tools and guidelines to carry out clinical handover, clinical leaders need to participate and conduct clinical handover themselves at the local level. From our previous experience with morning report, we provided simple tips on how to implement clinical handover at the local level,3 and these have been incorporated into Australian Medical Association guidelines.4