Australia RACGP Standards for General Practices (5th edition) C5.3: Clinical handover: the practice manages the transfer of responsibility for a patient's care, both between its own clinicians and to external providers, so that the information needed for safe continuing care travels with the patient

What does C5.3 require?

Care is lost at the seams. The practice has a reliable way of handing over responsibility for a patient between its own clinicians, for example when a practitioner is away, a nurse takes over part of care or a result arrives for an absent doctor, and to external providers such as hospitals, specialists, aged care facilities and after-hours services. The handover conveys the current problem, relevant history, medicines and allergies, pending results and what the receiving clinician is expected to do, in a structured form, and is documented in the record.