Maybe patient handoffs are so dangerous because of the dysfunction everywhere else in the system. Maybe patient current-state summary and recent-changes log could be much better maintained, if doctors had a bit more time and the forms/systems for it were refactored a bit.

Doesn't it sound like medicine is like a web service infrastructure where everything is on fire, and there's just no time to really fix the root causes?

FWIW, my mother is an MD, a Family Practitioner. She eventually became head of FP for a small commercial hospital chain in the US. Two years ago, after perhaps 18 years of professional practice, she moved to New Zealand and is a FP in a small town. She takes 3 days off a week, has reasonable hours, does less paperwork, does more with her own hands which she would refer to specialists in the US. She absolutely loves it.