Premium
Letters to go: general practitioners' referral letters to an accident and emergency department
Author(s) -
Montalto Michael
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1991.tb101312.x
Subject(s) - referral , accident and emergency , context (archaeology) , medicine , emergency department , plan (archaeology) , anonymity , medical emergency , family medicine , nursing , computer science , computer security , paleontology , biology , history , archaeology
Objective: To investigate the content of general practitioners' referral letters to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department of a large regional hospital. Method: Two hundred and fourteen consecutive identifiable letters from general practitioners presented by patients over a four week period were reviewed. The accuracy and content of the letters was measured by the presence of 10 key items, and checked against the A&E notes when necessary. A further nine items were examined to discover whether the context of the referral had any influence on letter content. Results: Information that was relatively poorly represented in the letters included social and personal background details, vital signs, regional examination findings, a management plan, and investigation results. The presence in the letter of a management plan or a clear presenting problem was found to be significantly associated with appropriate referrals. Conclusions: Poor referral letters may reflect a professional distance between the general practitioner and A&E staff that is stretched by the anonymity of the relationship, increasing A&E specialisation, or lack of feedback to the general practitioner. Specific information standards for A&E referrals should be developed to ease contact and to establish criteria for referral.