Open AccessEffective acute care handover to GP: optimising the structure to improve discharge documentation
Author(s) -
K. A. Lockman,
W H Lee,
Rohit Sinha,
Wei Leng Teoh,
C Bickler,
Simon Dummer,
Aravindan Veiraiah
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
acute medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1747-4892
pISSN - 1747-4884
DOI - 10.52964/amja.0702
Subject(s) - documentation , medicine , primary care , handover , thematic analysis , quality (philosophy) , process (computing) , perception , resource (disambiguation) , medical emergency , qualitative research , computer science , family medicine , psychology , telecommunications , computer network , epistemology , neuroscience , sociology , programming language , operating system , social science , philosophy
Time and resource constraints have often led to the use of assessment records as discharge communications from acute and emergency departments. However, whether this addresses the primary care needs has not been demonstrated. This study examined the optimal structure that can impart key discharge information effectively using feedback from general practitioners (GP). We implemented an electronic assessment template that focused on the most relevant headings. Prespecified process measures were examined and qualitative thematic analysis of free-text comments from GP surveys were conducted to optimise the document. Our findings suggest that the structure of a discharge summary can influence the quality of information, users’ compliance and readers’ perceptions of the length of the letter.