Patient transfer forms enhance key information between nursing homes and emergency department

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of a transfer form increases the availability of essential information needed for patient care and to examine its effect on case resolution time and disposition status. A retrospective review was performed that included patients 65 years old or greater arriving from nursing homes to an academic Emergency Department from January to June 2009. Eighty randomly selected charts were reviewed. Sixteen items were deemed essential based on an expert-based rubric published in 2006. Each case was scored accordingly. Results indicate that the transfer form group had available, on average, 71% of the essential items as compared to 28% for cases without a transfer form (p < 0.001). There was no difference in the case resolution time (p = 0.94) or in disposition status (p = 0.12). In conclusion, essential information for providing emergency department patient care was significantly increased with the use of a transfer form.