Open AccessDevelopment of a quality scoring tool to assess quality of discharge summaries
Author(s) -
Stavros Savvopoulos,
Tara Sampalli,
Ruth Harding,
Gail Blackmore,
Sandra Janes,
Kothai Kumanan,
Rick Gibson,
Chris MacKnight
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of family medicine and primary care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2278-7135
pISSN - 2249-4863
DOI - 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_407_16
Subject(s) - medicine , standardization , quality (philosophy) , audit , context (archaeology) , quality management , quality assurance , process (computing) , health care , process management , medical emergency , operations management , computer science , paleontology , management system , philosophy , business , external quality assessment , management , epistemology , pathology , economics , biology , economic growth , operating system
Timely, precise, and relevant communication between hospital-based clinicians and primary care physicians post-discharge (DC) ensures quality transitions, thereby reducing patient safety incidents and preventing readmission. At the present time there is limited knowledge of elements of quality or methods to score the quality criteria in the context of DC summaries. The Nova Scotia Health Authority, a provincial health system responsible for the delivery of services in a small Canadian province, embarked on a system-level approach to the standardization of DC summaries in an effort to improve quality and safety at care transitions from hospital to primary care.