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A quality assurance activity to improve discharge communication with general practice
1Central Sydney Area Health Service, and Department of Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia. pbolton@email.cs.nsw.gov.au
Journal of Quality in Clinical Practice
|March 15, 2002
Summary
Implementing a self-carbonating form significantly improved discharge summary completion rates for general practice casualty (GPC) services. This quality improvement initiative boosted the provision of discharge letters to usual general practitioners (GPs) from 30% to 90%.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- General Practice
- Quality Improvement
Background:
- Incomplete discharge summaries hinder continuity of care between hospital and primary care.
- Quality assurance in general practice casualty (GPC) settings requires efficient information transfer.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate a novel self-carbonating form system for enhancing discharge summary completion.
- To assess the impact of this system on the communication between GPC and community general practitioners (GPs).
Main Methods:
- A self-carbonating form was implemented in a Sydney GPC, producing simultaneous patient records and discharge letters.
- Logistic regression analysis, with clustering at the GP level, evaluated changes in discharge letter completion rates.
- The primary outcome was the rate of discharge letters sent to the patient's usual GP.
Main Results:
- Discharge letter completion increased dramatically from 30% pre-intervention to 90% post-intervention.
- This improvement was statistically significant (P< 0.0005) with an odds ratio of 11.9 (95% CI 8.6-16.4).
Conclusions:
- System-level solutions are effective for addressing quality issues in healthcare documentation.
- The self-carbonating form offers a scalable and effective method for improving discharge summary completion in similar healthcare services.
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