Maintaining clinical governance when giving telephone advice

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Healthcare Management
• Clinical Communication

Background:

• Accurate communication is vital for excellent healthcare delivery.
• Telephone referrals are a frequent initial contact point for liver units.
• Lack of contemporaneous records for telephone referrals poses a clinical governance challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance clinical governance of telephone referrals.
• To create easily retrievable and auditable contemporaneous records.
• To improve the management of liver unit consultations.

Main Methods:

• Development and implementation of a secure electronic database for telephone referrals and advice.
• Prospective recording of demographic and clinical data.
• Retrospective analysis of 350 calls over a 5-month period.

Main Results:

• The database captured data from 350 calls, originating from 75 institutions.
• Information included call nature, origin, disease burden, and severity.
• Most cases involved consultant discussion or led to formal review at King's College Hospital.

Conclusions:

• An electronic database provides clinical governance and serves as a quality indicator for referral centers.
• Activity data and disease burden insights help tailor services to referrer and commissioner needs.
• Implementation of similar models is recommended for other centers providing verbal advice.