{
  "abstract": "Background Ward rounds are an essential activity occurring in hospital settings. Despite their fundamental role in guiding patient care, they have no standardised approach. Implementation of structured interventions during ward rounds was shown to improve outcomes such as efficiency, documentation and communication. Whether these improvements have an impact on clinical outcomes is unclear. Our systematic review assessed whether structured interventions to guide ward rounds affect patient outcomes.Methods A systematic search was carried out in May 2023 on Embase, Medline, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science Core Collection, the Cochrane Library (Wiley) and Google Scholar, and a backward and forward citation search in January 2024. We included peer-reviewed, original studies assessing the use of structured interventions during bedside ward rounds (BWRs) on clinical outcomes. All inpatient hospital settings where BWRs are performed were included. We excluded papers looking at board, teaching or medication rounds.Results Our search strategy yielded 29 studies. Two were randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and 27 were quasi-experimental interventional studies. The majority (79%) were conducted in intensive care units. The main clinical outcomes reported were mortality, infectious complications, length of stay (LOS) and duration of mechanical ventilation (DoMV). Mortality, LOS and rates of urinary tract and central-line associated bloodstream infections did not seem to be affected, positively or negatively, by interventions structuring BWRs, while evidence was conflicting regarding their effects on rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia and DoMV, with a signal towards improved outcomes. Studies were generally of low-to-moderate quality.Conclusion The impact of structured interventions during BWRs on clinical outcomes remains inconclusive. Higher quality research focusing on multicentric RCTs or on prospective pre–post trials with concurrent cohorts, matched for key characteristics, is needed.PROSPERO registration number CRD42023412637.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Internal Medicine, Etablissements Hospitaliers du Nord Vaudois, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland",
        "Medical Education Unit, University of Lausanne, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Victoria Ando"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Medical Library, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland",
        "Institute of Health Sciences, School of Health Sciences - HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Sion, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Alexia Cavin-Trombert"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Medical Education Unit, University of Lausanne, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland",
        "Department of Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "David Gachoud"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Medical Education Unit, University of Lausanne, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland",
        "Department of Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland"
      ],
      "name": "Matteo Monti"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Does the use of structured interventions to guide ward rounds affect patient outcomes? A systematic review",
  "uid": "39319936-fdd2-57d4-83e5-a1d698c13298"
}