Research has identified that handoffs are particularly important communication processes, during which communication error can lead to patient safety situations. Organizations have created standard practices and training materials to encourage teamwork communication for handoffs, however these do not necessarily capture the needs of military medicine of combat casualty care. Combat casualty handoffs can be even more complex, allowing for more opportunity for error. They require specific protocols and techniques that address the unique needs of the patients, providers, and environments and will allow for effective communication and information transfer.Thus, the proposed effort aims to design and develop a new concept for handoff protocols, for use through the continuum of care for combat casualty care. The CCHAT Handoff Protocol will outline the protocol for the purpose of implementation into an automated speech recognition system. The effort will develop descriptions of the correct methodology for performing a combat casualty handoff and a description of the concept of operations for future handoff training systems. These descriptions will be used to create the speech ontology for the speech recognition training system. This effort will result in the protocol documentation needed for the DHA17B-001 performer to develop requirements for a speech recognition prototype.
