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Processing discharge summaries in general practice : a qualitative interview study with GPs and practice managers
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Spencer, Rachel, Rodgers, Sarah, Salema, Ndeshi, Campbell, Stephen M. and Avery, Anthony J. (2019) Processing discharge summaries in general practice : a qualitative interview study with GPs and practice managers. BJGP Open, 3 (1). bjgpopen18X101625. doi:10.3399/bjgpopen18X101625 ISSN 2398-3795.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen18X101625
Abstract
Background
Discharge summaries are essential for communicating patient information from secondary care to general practice on hospital discharge. Although there has been extensive research into their design and completion in secondary care, very little is known about primary care processing of these documents.
Aim
To explore what general practice staff think are the factors associated with failure to respond to actions requested in discharge summaries and what practices do to mitigate this.
Design & setting
Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with primary care staff in three geographical regions of England.
Method
Interviews with 10 practice managers and 10 GPs (one of each at each of the 10 practices) were undertaken to explore management of discharge summaries.
Results
Five themes emerged from the interviews. The 'secondary care factors' theme describes participants’ perspectives on the design of summaries, which are inconsistent and often require improvement. The 'safety features of processing systems' theme focuses on document handling in primary care. A theme devoted to 'medicines reconciliation' followed. 'Error and harm as a result of faulty processing' is a theme describing ‘human error’ and other factors that participants believed contributed to failure to respond to requested actions. Finally, the 'strategies for safety improvement' theme describes initiatives to prevent failures of safer transitions of care.
Conclusion
Correct processing of discharge summaries is essential to ensure patients experience a safe transition of care and not just a hospital discharge. Based on the interview findings, strategies to mitigate against faults in the processing of discharge summaries have been suggested to enhance safer transitions of care.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | |||||||||
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| Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) | |||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Social Science & Systems in Health (SSSH) Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Patient discharge instructions, General practice (Medicine), Physicians | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | BJGP Open | |||||||||
| Publisher: | Royal College of General Practitioners | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 2398-3795 | |||||||||
| Official Date: | 23 April 2019 | |||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 3 | |||||||||
| Number: | 1 | |||||||||
| Article Number: | bjgpopen18X101625 | |||||||||
| DOI: | 10.3399/bjgpopen18X101625 | |||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | |||||||||
| Copyright Holders: | 2019, The Authors | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 7 March 2019 | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 March 2019 | |||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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