Background: SBAR has been suggested as a means to avoid unclear communication between health care professionals and in turn enhance patient safety in the healthcare sector.

Aim: to evaluate hospital-based health care professionals experiences from using the Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation (SBAR) communication model.

Methodology: A quantitative, descriptive, comparative pre- and post-intervention questionnaire-based pilot study before and after the implementation of SBAR at surgical hospitals wards. Open comments to questionnaire items were analyzed qualitatively.

Results: The introduction of SBAR increased the experience of having a well-functioning structure for oral communication among health care professionals regarding patients’ conditions. Qualitative findings revealed the categories: Use of SBAR as a structure, Reporting time, Patient safety, and Personal aspects.

Conclusions: SBAR is perceived as effective to get a structure of the content in patient reports, which may facilitate patient safety.