We need to use a structure and language that is respectful and easily approachable to all those parties. “The GP is the primary audience and the patient, and their family or caregivers, is the secondary audience. “This is primarily a clinical handover tool,” he stressed. Similarly, medical issues can be resolved by hospital staff, only for them to reoccur later due to the GP not being properly informed.įor Hematology Registrar and Project Lead Dr Andrew Vanlint, the clear aim of the handover to GPs project was to realign the focus of medical discharge summaries and redesign them with their intended audiences in mind. Errors in the continuity of medication, such as discontinuing a medication that should continue, are a primary example. Such issues can have meaningful consequences for patients and GPs alike. Typical issues included too much or not enough information, heavy use of clinical acronyms and jargon, or inclusion of information not relevant to the GP. In the absence of a consistent structure, the quality and usefulness of discharge summaries was highly variable.
Prior to the project, there was no universal template or guidance to support junior Medical Officers in how they brief GPs regarding outgoing patients.
DOCTOR DISCHARGE LETTER TEMPLATE TRIAL
The reinvented template has now been embedded in CALHN policy following a successful trial period. These summaries are critical to ensure the continuity of patient care with their new healthcare provider once they have been discharged from hospital. Future research needs to consider other perspectives on letter content, particularly those of patients.Ĭommunication copy letters discharge summaries doctor and patient communication general practitioners hospital discharge patient discharge primary care.Central Adelaide LHN (CALHN) doctors have completed a successful overhaul of the way they produce medical discharge summaries for general practitioners (GPs). Templates should be devised that put discharge letter elements assessed to be important by GPs to the forefront. GPs reported that discharge letters frequently lacked content items they assessed to be important GPs highlighted that this can have subsequent ramifications on resources and patient experiences. Nevertheless, GPs felt that if patients are to receive direct discharge letter copies, modifications such as use of lay language and avoidance of acronyms may be required to increase patient understanding. GPs supported patients receiving discharge letters and expounded a number of benefits of this practice for example, increased patient autonomy. Interviews were transcribed and data were analysed using corpus linguistics (CL) techniques.Įlements pivotal to a successful letter were: diagnosis, appropriate follow-up plan, medication changes and reasons, clinical summary, investigations and/or procedures and outcomes, and what information has been given to the patient. The study used narrative interviews with 26 GPs from 13 GP practices within the West Midlands, England.
To explore GP perspectives on how discharge letters can be improved in order to enhance patient outcomes. Patients are sometimes copied into this communication, but the reasons for this variation, and the resultant effects, remain unclear. Written discharge communication following inpatient or outpatient clinic discharge is essential for communicating information to the GP, but GPs' opinions on discharge communication are seldom sought.
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