Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
2-16-2026
First Advisor
Sandra King
Second Advisor
Kristie Givens
Abstract
The development in telehealth operations in outpatient mental health care has enhanced access to care at the expense of creating challenges in communication and workflow, especially when it comes to dealing with high-risk substances like benzodiazepines. The role ambiguity, inaccurate refill timeline, documentation lapses and high chances of medication errors are caused by inconsistent communication during the process of telehealth refills. This quality improvement project was aimed at assessing the effects of applying a standardized Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) communication and documentation protocol to workflow efficiency, interprofessional communication, and medication safety when making benzodiazepine refills in a telehealth outpatient mental health clinic. Based on the Donabedian Model of Quality Care and the Three-Step Change Theory of Lewin, a quasi-experimental pre and post-test design was applied after 12 weeks of implementation. The subjects were psychiatric nurse practitioners, registered nurses, behavioral health specialists and medical assistants. Outcome measures consisted of the turnaround time on the refill requests, effectiveness in the interprofessional communication, completeness of documentation, and compliance with Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). After the implementation of SBAR, the mean refill turnaround time reduced by 72.40 hours to 41.80 hours (p =.001), the interprofessional communication scores improved (p =.001), and the PDMP documentation compliance level rose to 68 percent and 92 percent (p =.014). These results indicate the usefulness of standardized communication procedures in enhancing workflow and effective communication and medication safety in telehealth environments. The project contributes to the fact that SBAR is an effective implementation strategy that must be undertaken to improve quality and safety in the outpatient mental health telehealth care practice.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Agwu, Hendricks, "Improving Benzodiazepine Refill Workflow and Communication via Telehealth Using a Standardized SBAR Protocol" (2026). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 311.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/311
