Improving patients', carers' and primary care healthcare professionals' experiences of discharge communication from specialist palliative care to community settings: a protocol for a qualitative interview study.

BACKGROUND: Patients who have benefited from specialist intervention during periods of acute/complex palliative care needs often transition from specialist-to-primary care once such needs have been controlled. Effective communication between services is central to co-ordination of care to avoid the potential consequences of unmet needs, fragmented care, and poor patient and family experience. Discharge communications are a key component of care transitions. However, little is known about the experiences of those primarily receiving these communications, to include patients', carers' and primary care healthcare professionals. This study aims to have a better understanding of how the discharge communications from specialist palliative care services to primary care are experienced by patients, carers, and healthcare professionals, and how these communications might be improved to support effective patient-centred care. METHODS: This is a 15-month qualitative study. We will interview 30 adult patients and carers and 15 healthcare professionals (n = 45). We will seek a range of experiences of discharge communication by using a maximum variation approach to sampling, including purposively recruiting people from a range of demographic backgrounds from 4-6 specialist palliative care services (hospitals and hospices) as well as 5-7 general practices. Interview data will be analysed using a reflexive thematic approach and will involve input from the research and advisory team. Working with clinicians, commissioners, and PPI representatives we will co-produce a list of recommendations for discharge communication from specialist palliative care. DISCUSSION: Data collection may be limited by the need to be sensitive to participants' wellbeing needs. Study findings will be shared through academic publications and presentations. We will draft principles for how specialist palliative care clinicians can best communicate discharge with patients, carers, and primary care clinicians. These will be shared with clinicians, policy makers, commissioners, and PPI representatives and key stakeholders and organisations (e.g. Hospice UK) and on social media. Key outputs will be recommendations for a specialist palliative care discharge proforma. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered in ISRCTN Registry on 29.12.2023 ref: ISRCTN18098027.

Patient-Friendly Discharge Summaries in Korea Based on ChatGPT: Software Development and Validation.

BACKGROUND: Although discharge summaries in patient-friendly language can enhance patient comprehension and satisfaction, they can also increase medical staff workload. Using a large language model, we developed and validated software that generates a patient-friendly discharge summary. METHODS: We developed and tested the software using 100 discharge summary documents, 50 for patients with myocardial infarction and 50 for patients treated in the Department of General Surgery. For each document, three new summaries were generated using three different prompting methods (Zero-shot, One-shot, and Few-shot) and graded using a 5-point Likert Scale regarding factuality, comprehensiveness, usability, ease, and fluency. We compared the effects of different prompting methods and assessed the relationship between input length and output quality. RESULTS: The mean overall scores differed across prompting methods (4.19 ± 0.36 in Few-shot, 4.11 ± 0.36 in One-shot, and 3.73 ± 0.44 in Zero-shot; P < 0.001). Post-hoc analysis indicated that the scores were higher with Few-shot and One-shot prompts than in zero-shot prompts, whereas there was no significant difference between Few-shot and One-shot prompts. The overall proportion of outputs that scored ≥ 4 was 77.0% (95% confidence interval: 68.8-85.3%), 70.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 61.0-79.0%), and 32.0% (95% CI, 22.9-41.1%) with Few-shot, One-shot, and Zero-shot prompts, respectively. The mean factuality score was 4.19 ± 0.60 with Few-shot, 4.20 ± 0.55 with One-shot, and 3.82 ± 0.57 with Zero-shot prompts. Input length and the overall score showed negative correlations in the Zero-shot (r = -0.437, P < 0.001) and One-shot (r = -0.327, P < 0.001) tests but not in the Few-shot (r = -0.050, P = 0.625) tests. CONCLUSION: Large-language models utilizing Few-shot prompts generally produce acceptable discharge summaries without significant misinformation. Our research highlights the potential of such models in creating patient-friendly discharge summaries for Korean patients to support patient-centered care.

Nurses engaging with referral letters and discharge summaries: A qualitative study.

AIMS: To investigate the ways that nurses engage with referral letters and discharge summaries, and the qualities of these documents they find valuable for safe and effective practice. DESIGN: This study comprised a qualitative, case-study design within a constructivist paradigm using convenience sampling. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with nurses to investigate their practices relating to referral letters and discharge summaries. Data collection also involved nurses' examination and evaluation of a diverse range of 10 referral letters and discharge summaries from medical records at two Australian hospitals through focus-group sessions. The data were transcribed and analysed inductively. RESULTS: In all, 67 nurses participated in interviews or focus groups. Nurses indicated they used referral letters and discharge summaries to inform their work when caring for patients at different times throughout their hospitalisation. These documents assisted them with verbal handovers, to enable them to educate patients about their condition and treatment and to provide a high standard of care. The qualities of referral letters and discharge summaries that they most valued were language and communication, an awareness of audience and clinical knowledge, as well as balancing conciseness with comprehensiveness of information. CONCLUSION: Nurses relied on referral letters and discharge summaries to ensure safe and effective patient care. They used these documents to enhance their verbal handovers, contribute to patient care and to educate the patient about their condition and treatment. They identified several qualities of these documents that assisted them in maintaining patient safety including clarity and conciseness of information. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND PATIENT CARE: It is important that referral letters and discharge summaries are written clearly, concisely and comprehensively because nurses use them as key sources of evidence in planning and delivering care, and in communicating with other health professionals in relaying goals of care and implementing treatment plans. IMPACT: Nurses reported that they regularly used referral letters and discharge summaries as valuable sources of evidence throughout their patients' hospitalisation. The qualities of these documents which they most valued were language and communication styles, awareness of audience and clinical knowledge, as well as balancing conciseness with comprehensiveness of information. This research has important impact on the patient experience in relation to encouraging effective referral letter and discharge summary writing. REPORTING METHOD: We have adhered to the relevant EQUATOR guidelines through the SRQR reporting method. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

Communication of palliative care needs in discharge letters from hospice providers to primary care: a multisite sequential explanatory mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: The provision of palliative care is increasing, with many people dying in community-based settings. It is essential that communication is effective if and when patients transition from hospice to community palliative care. Past research has indicated that communication issues are prevalent during hospital discharges, but little is known about hospice discharges. METHODS: An explanatory sequential mixed methods study consisting of a retrospective review of hospice discharge letters, followed by hospice focus groups, to explore patterns in communication of palliative care needs of discharged patients and describe why these patients were being discharged. Discharge letters were extracted for key content information using a standardised form. Letters were then examined for language patterns using a linguistic methodology termed corpus linguistics. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the focus group transcripts. Findings were triangulated to develop an explanatory understanding of discharge communication from hospice care. RESULTS: We sampled 250 discharge letters from five UK hospices whereby patients had been discharged to primary care. Twenty-five staff took part in focus groups. The main reasons for discharge extracted from the letters were symptoms "managed/resolved" (75.2%), and/or the "patient wishes to die/for care at home" (37.2%). Most patients had some form of physical needs documented on the letters (98.4%) but spiritual needs were rarely documented (2.4%). Psychological/emotional needs and social needs were documented in 46.4 and 35.6% of letters respectively. There was sometimes ambiguity in "who" will be following up "what" in the discharge letters, and whether described patients' needs were resolved or ongoing for managing in the community setting. The extent to which patients received a copy of their discharge letter varied. Focus groups conveyed a lack of consensus on what constitutes "complexity" and "complex pain". CONCLUSIONS: The content and structure of discharge letters varied between hospices, although generally focused on physical needs. Our study provides insights into patterns associated with those discharged from hospice, and how policy and guidance in this area may be improved, such as greater consistency of sharing letters with patients. A patient-centred set of hospice-specific discharge letter principles could help improve future practice.

Adult patient perspectives on receiving hospital discharge letters: a corpus analysis of patient interviews.

BACKGROUND: UK government guidelines and initiatives emphasise equity in delivery of care, shared decision-making, and patient-centred care. This includes sharing information with patients as partners in health decisions and empowering them to manage their health effectively. In the UK, general practitioners (GPs) routinely receive hospital discharge letters; while patients receiving copies of such letters is seen as "good practice" and recommended, it is not standardised. The effects and consequences of whether or not this happens remains unclear. The aim of this study (one of three forming the Discharge Communication Study) was to explore patient perspectives on receiving discharge letters and their views on how this could be improved in order to optimise patient experience and outcomes. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of 50 patients recruited from 17 GP surgeries within the West Midlands, UK. All participants were adults with a recent episode of general hospital inpatient or outpatient care. Data were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using mixed methods corpus linguistics techniques. RESULTS: Participants reported inconsistent access to discharge letters. Most wanted to receive a copy of their discharge letter although some expressed reservations. Perceived benefits included: increased understanding of their condition and treatment, reduced anxiety, and increased satisfaction. Consequences where participants had not received letters included: letter inaccuracies being overlooked, missed follow up actions, failure to fully remember diagnosis, treatment, or self-management or recommendations, and confusion and anxiety at what occurred and what will happen next. Participants felt the usefulness of receiving copies of letters could be increased by: including a patient information section, avoidance of acronyms, and jargon or technical terms explained with lay language. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients value receiving copies of hospital discharge letters, and should be consistently offered them. Patients' preferences for letter receipt could be logged in their health records. To enable positive outcomes letters should have a clear and accessible format that reflects the priorities and information needs of patients. Patients appear not to be receiving or being offered copies of letters consistently despite UK policies and guidelines supporting this practice; this suggests a need for greater standardisation of practice.

General practitioners' continuation and acceptance of medication changes at sectorial transitions of geriatric patients - a qualitative interview study.

BACKGROUND: Follow-up in general practice on medication initiated during hospitalisation is often perceived to be inadequate, which leads to unintended drug interaction and over- or underdosage of medication. Little is known about General Practitioners (GPs') views on medication changes during the transition from hospital to primary care. We conducted a qualitative interview study to understand GPs' views on the medication changes made for their patients by hospital physicians in a geriatric ward and the GPs' actions after discharge. METHODS: Qualitative semi-structured interviews comprising ten GPs from general practices in the Region of Southern Denmark, using a phenomenological approach. The GPs were selected strategically based on the principle of maximum variation. The analysis process was a cross-sectional analysis based on a phenomenological analysis. RESULTS: The GPs identified many reasons for the lack of medication continuation, including miscommunication between hospital doctors and GPs and delayed discharge letters. Several factors were involved, including patients not taking responsibility for their medication, no structure for follow-up visits to their GPs and for the renewal of their prescriptions. CONCLUSION: The main reason for the poor continuity of medication changes for geriatric patients at sector transition was neither the GPs' deliberate actions of removing the patients' medications, nor the patients' lack of compliance or of willingness to take the medication. It is largely due to procedural errors in the follow-up on the patient after discharge, due to the lack of a structured process and due to miscommunication between the primary sector and the hospital.

[Proposal of standardised and logical templates for discharge letters and discharge summaries sent to general practitioners]. / Proposition d'un contenu standardisé et raisonné pour les lettres de liaison et les comptes-rendus d'hospitalisation à destination du médecin traitant.

Background: Communication between general practitioners (GPs) and hospitals is a weak point of the French health system. Unfortunately, hospital discharge documents, a keypoint for healthcare safety and efficiency, tend to be poorly defined. This study aimed to propose standardised and logical templates for discharge letters (DL) and discharge summaries (DS) with particular attention to GPs' needs.Methods: A Delphi methodology was conducted on the findings of a systematic review of the international literature. We recruited 28 experts including producers (hospital physicians and interns), recipients (GPs, head of the medical information department, patient representatives), and other professionals using discharge documents (representative of regional health administration for inspection and control, jurist, pharmacists).Results: A consensus was reached after two rounds of consultation. According to the experts, DS should ideally be available on the last day of hospitalization, but this is rarely possible. DL have therefore become the most important document for GPs. Two standardised and logical templates were submitted to the experts for validation. The templates were considered to be pertinent by the experts and were perceived as improving several key points such as writing and reading speed, communication between hospitals and community practitioners or safety of healthcare after discharge from hospital.Conclusion: DL and DS templates will be tested in pilot hospitals by an impact study.

Omission of Physical Therapy Recommendations for High-Risk Patients Transitioning From the Hospital to Subacute Care Facilities.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the quality and explore the potential impact of the communication of physical therapy (PT) recommendations in hospital discharge summaries/orders for high-risk subacute care populations, specifically targeting recommendations for (1) maintenance of patient safety, (2) assistance required for mobility, and (3) use of assistive devices. DESIGN: Medical record abstraction of retrospective cohort comparing discharge recommendations made by inpatient PT to orders included in written hospital discharge summaries/orders, the primary form of hospital-to-subacute care communication. Data were linked to Medicare outcomes from corresponding years for all Medicare beneficiaries in the cohort. SETTING: Academic hospital. PARTICIPANTS: All hospitalized patients (N=613 overall) 18 years and older with primary diagnoses of stroke or hip fracture, with an inpatient PT consultation and discharged to subacute care during the years 2006 to 2008; 366 of these were Medicare beneficiaries. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Combined rehospitalization, emergency department visit, and/or death within 30 days of discharge. RESULTS: Omission of recommendations for maintaining patient safety occurred in 54% (316/584) of patients; for assistance required for mobility, in approximately 100% (535/537); and for use of assistive devices, in 77% (409/532). As compared with those without patient safety restriction/precaution omissions, Medicare beneficiaries with such omissions demonstrated a trend toward more negative 30-day outcomes (26% vs 18%, P=.10). Similar, albeit nonsignificant, outcome trends were observed in the other omission categories. CONCLUSIONS: PT recommendations made during a hospital stay in high-risk patients are routinely omitted from hospital discharge communications to subacute care facilities. Interventions to reliably improve this communication are needed.

A feasibility study of the provision of a personalized interdisciplinary audiovisual summary to facilitate care transfer care at hospital discharge: Care Transfer Video (CareTV).

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility and patient acceptance of a personalized interdisciplinary audiovisual record to facilitate effective communication with patients, family, carers and other healthcare workers at hospital discharge. DESIGN: Descriptive pilot study utilizing a study-specific patient feedback questionnaire conducted from October 2013 to June 2014. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Twenty General Medical inpatients being discharged from an Acute General Medical Ward in a metropolitan teaching hospital. INTERVENTION: Audiovisual record of a CareTV filmed at the patient's bedside by a consultant-led interdisciplinary team, within 24 h prior to discharge from the ward, provided immediately for the patient to take home. Patient surveys were completed within 2 weeks of discharge. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Technical quality, utilization, acceptability, patient satisfaction and recall of diagnosis, medication changes and post-discharge review arrangements. RESULTS: All patients had watched their CareTV either alone or in the presence of a variety of others: close family, their GP, a medical specialist, friends or other health personnel. Participating patients had good understanding of the video content and recall of their diagnosis, medication changes and post-discharge plans. Patient feedback was overwhelmingly positive. CONCLUSIONS: In the context of a General Medical Unit with extensive experience in interdisciplinary bedside rounding and teamwork, CareTV is simple to implement, inexpensive, technically feasible, requires minimal staff training and is acceptable to patients. The results of this pilot study will inform and indicate the feasibility of conducting a larger randomized control trial of the impact of CareTV on patient satisfaction, medication adherence and recall of key information, and primary healthcare provider satisfaction.

Assessing Pictograph Recognition: A Comparison of Crowdsourcing and Traditional Survey Approaches.

BACKGROUND: Compared to traditional methods of participant recruitment, online crowdsourcing platforms provide a fast and low-cost alternative. Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a large and well-known crowdsourcing service. It has developed into the leading platform for crowdsourcing recruitment. OBJECTIVE: To explore the application of online crowdsourcing for health informatics research, specifically the testing of medical pictographs. METHODS: A set of pictographs created for cardiovascular hospital discharge instructions was tested for recognition. This set of illustrations (n=486) was first tested through an in-person survey in a hospital setting (n=150) and then using online MTurk participants (n=150). We analyzed these survey results to determine their comparability. RESULTS: Both the demographics and the pictograph recognition rates of online participants were different from those of the in-person participants. In the multivariable linear regression model comparing the 2 groups, the MTurk group scored significantly higher than the hospital sample after adjusting for potential demographic characteristics (adjusted mean difference 0.18, 95% CI 0.08-0.28, P<.001). The adjusted mean ratings were 2.95 (95% CI 2.89-3.02) for the in-person hospital sample and 3.14 (95% CI 3.07-3.20) for the online MTurk sample on a 4-point Likert scale (1=totally incorrect, 4=totally correct). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that crowdsourcing is a viable complement to traditional in-person surveys, but it cannot replace them.

[Quality of medication documentation in patients discharge summaries after implementing new legal requirements]. / Dokumentationsqualität der Medikation in Entlassbriefen ­ eine Bestandsaufnahme nach Einführung des Rahmenvertrags Entlassmanagement.

INTRODUCTION: Discharge from hospital is a risk to drug continuity and medication safety. In Germany, new legal requirements concerning the management of patient discharge from the hospital came into force in 2017. They set minimum requirements for the documentation of medications in patient discharge summaries, which are the primary means of communication at transitions of care. Six years later, data on their practical implementation in routine care are lacking. METHODS: Within the scope of an explorative retrospective observational study, the minimum requirements were operationalized and a second set of assessment criteria was derived from the recommendation "Good Prescribing Practice in Drug Therapy" published by the Aktionsbündnis Patientensicherheit e.V. as a comparative quality standard. A sample of discharge summaries was drawn from routine care at the University Hospital Heidelberg and assessed according to their fulfilment of the criteria sets. In addition, the potential influence of certain context factors (e. g., involvement of clinical pharmacists or software usage) was evaluated. RESULTS: In total, 11 quality criteria were derived from the minimum requirements. According to the eligibility criteria (i. e., three or more discharge medications) 352 discharge summaries (42 wards; issued in May-July 2021), containing in total 3,051 medications, were included. The practical implementation of the minimum requirements for documenting medications in patient discharge summaries differed considerably depending on the criterion and defined context factors. Core elements (i. e., drug name, strength, and dosage at discharge) were fulfilled in 82.8 %, while further minimum requirements were rarely met or completely lacking (e. g., explanations for special pharmaceutical forms). Involvement of clinical pharmacists and usage of software were shown to be a facilitator of documentation quality, while on-demand medication (compared to long-term medication) as well as newly prescribed medication (compared to home medication or medication changed during hospitalisation) showed poorer documentation quality. In addition, the documentation quality seemed to depend on the department and the day of discharge. CONCLUSION: To date, the wording of the German legal requirements allows for different interpretations without considering the respective clinical setting and the medication actually prescribed. For future clarification of the requirements, implications of the wording for the clinical setting should be considered.

Utility of SNOMED CT in automated expansion of clinical terms in discharge summaries: Testing issues of coverage.

OBJECTIVE: This study tests coverage of SNOMED CT as an expansion source in the process of automated expansion of clinical terms found in discharge summaries. Term expansion is commonly used as a technique in knowledge extraction, query formulation and semantic modelling among other applications. However, characteristics of the sources might affect credibility of outputs, and coverage is one of them. METHOD: We developed an automated method for testing coverage of more than one source at a time. We used several methods to clean our corpus of discharge summaries before we extracted text fragments as candidates for clinical concepts. We then used Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) sources and UMLS REST API to filter concepts from the pool of text fragments. Statistical measures like true positive rate and false negative rate were used to decide on the coverage of the source. We also tested the coverage of the individual SNOMED CT hierarchies using the same methods. RESULTS: Findings suggest that a combination of four terminologies tested (SNOMED CT, NCI, LNC and MSH) achieves over 90% of coverage for term expansion. We also found that the SNOMED CT hierarchies that hold clinically relevant concepts provided 60% of coverage. CONCLUSION: We believe that our findings and the method we developed will be of use to both scientists and practitioners working in the domain of knowledge extraction.

Obstacles and Opportunities in Information Transfer Regarding Medications at Discharge - A Focus Group Study with Hospital Physicians.

Purpose: This qualitative study aimed to investigate experiences and perceptions of hospital physicians regarding the discharging process, focusing on information transfer regarding medications. Methods: By purposive sampling three focus groups were formed. To facilitate discussions and maintain consistency, a semi-structured interview guide was used. Discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the anonymized data. A confirmatory analysis concluded that the main findings were supported by data. Results: Identified obstacles were divided into three categories with two sub-categories each: Infrastructure; IT-systems currently used are suboptimal and complex. Hospital and primary care use different electronic medical records, complicating matters. The work organization is not helping with time scarcity and lack of continuity. Distinct routines could help create continuity but are not always in place, known, and/or followed. Physician: knowledge and education in the systems is not always provided nor prioritized. Understanding the consequences of not following routines and taking responsibility regarding the medications list is important. Not everyone has the self-reliance or willingness to do so. Patient/next of kin: For patients to provide information on medications used is not always easy when hospitalized. Understanding information provided can be hard, especially when medical jargon is used and there is no one available to provide support. A central theme, "We're only human", encompasses how physicians do their best despite difficult conditions. Conclusion: There are several obstacles in transferring information regarding medications at discharge. Issues regarding infrastructure are seldom possible for the individual physician to influence. However, several issues raised by the participating physicians are possible to act upon. In doing so medication errors in care transitions might decrease and information transfer at discharge might improve.

Electronic Discharge Communication Tools Used in Pediatric Emergency Departments: Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Electronic discharge communication tools (EDCTs) are increasingly common in pediatric emergency departments (EDs). These tools have been shown to improve patient-centered communication, support postdischarge care at home, and reduce unnecessary return visits to the ED. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to map and assess the evidence base for EDCTs used in pediatric EDs according to their functionalities, intended purpose, implementation context features, and outcomes. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) procedures for identification, screening, and eligibility. A total of 7 databases (EBSCO, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched for studies published between 1989 and 2021. Studies evaluating discharge communication-related outcomes using electronic tools (eg, text messages, videos, and kiosks) in pediatric EDs were included. In all, 2 researchers independently assessed the eligibility. Extracted data related to study identification, methodology, settings and demographics, intervention features, outcome implementation features, and practice, policy, and research implications. The Mixed Method Appraisal Tool was used to assess methodological quality. The synthesis of results involved structured tabulation, vote counting, recoding into common metrics, inductive thematic analysis, descriptive statistics, and heat mapping. RESULTS: In total, 231 full-text articles and abstracts were screened for review inclusion with 49 reports (representing 55 unique tools) included. In all, 70% (26/37) of the studies met at least three of five Mixed Method Appraisal Tool criteria. The most common EDCTs were videos, text messages, kiosks, and phone calls. The time required to use the tools ranged from 120 seconds to 80 minutes. The EDCTs were evaluated for numerous presenting conditions (eg, asthma, fracture, head injury, fever, and otitis media) that required a range of at-home care needs after the ED visit. The most frequently measured outcomes were knowledge acquisition, caregiver and patient beliefs and attitudes, and health service use. Unvalidated self-report measures were typically used for measurement. Health care provider satisfaction or system-level impacts were infrequently measured in studies. The directionality of primary outcomes pointed to positive effects for the primary measure (44/55, 80%) or no significant difference (10/55, 18%). Only one study reported negative findings, with an increase in return visits to the ED after receiving the intervention compared with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: This review is the first to map the broad literature of EDCTs used in pediatric EDs. The findings suggest a promising evidence base, demonstrating that EDCTs have been successfully integrated across clinical contexts and deployed via diverse technological modalities. Although caregiver and patient satisfaction with EDCTs is high, future research should use robust trials using consistent measures of communication quality, clinician experience, cost-effectiveness, and health service use to accumulate evidence regarding these outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42020157500; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=157500.

Quality of ICU Discharge Summaries Produced by Pediatric Residents: The Memorial Health University Medical Center Experience.

Background: Discharging intensive care unit (ICU) patients directly home is becoming more common. High-quality ICU discharge summaries are crucial in the transition of patient care. Currently, at Memorial Health University Medical Center (MHUMC), there exists no standardized ICU discharge summary template or consistency when discharge documentation is completed. Investigators evaluated the timeliness and completeness of ICU discharge summaries at MHUMC produced by pediatric residents. Methods: A single-center retrospective chart review of pediatric patients discharged directly from a 10-bed Pediatric ICU to home was conducted. Charts were evaluated pre- and post-intervention. The intervention included the implementation of a standardized ICU discharge template, formal resident training in writing discharge summaries, and a new policy mandating documentation completion within 48 hours of patient discharge. Timeliness was based on documentation completion within 48 hours. Completeness was evaluated on the presence of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' (JCAHO) recommendations of specific components that should be included in all discharge summaries. Results were reported as proportions, with differences calculated using Fisher's exact and chi-square tests. Patient descriptive characteristics were recorded. Results: Thirty-nine total patients, 13 pre-intervention and 26 post-intervention were included in the study. In the pre-intervention group, 38.5% (5/13) had discharge summaries completed in less than 48 hours from patient discharge compared to 88.5% (23/26) in the post-intervention group (P=.002). Post-intervention discharge documentation was more likely than pre-intervention to contain the discharge diagnosis (100% vs. 69.2%, P=.009) and to provide follow-up care instructions for the outpatient physician (100% vs. 75%, P=.031). Conclusion: Standardizing discharge summary templates and encouraging stricter institutional policies regarding the timely completion of discharge summaries can improve the ICU discharge process. Formal resident training in medical documentation is important and should be incorporated into graduate medical education curricula.

Effectiveness of an Electronic Communication Tool on Transitions in Care From the Intensive Care Unit: Protocol for a Cluster-Specific Pre-Post Trial.

BACKGROUND: Transitions in care are vulnerable periods in health care that can expose patients to preventable errors due to incomplete or delayed communication between health care providers. Transitioning critically ill patients from intensive care units (ICUs) to other patient care units (PCUs) is particularly risky, due to the high acuity of the patients and the diversity of health care providers involved in their care. Instituting structured documentation to standardize written communication between health care providers during transitions has been identified as a promising means to reduce communication breakdowns. We developed an evidence-informed, computer-enabled, ICU-specific structured tool-an electronic transfer (e-transfer) tool-to facilitate and standardize the composition of written transfer summaries in the ICUs of one Canadian city. The tool consisted of 10 primary sections with a user interface combination of structured, automated, and free-text fields. OBJECTIVE: Our overarching goal is to evaluate whether implementation of our e-transfer tool will improve the completeness and timeliness of transfer summaries and streamline communications between health care providers during high-risk transitions. METHODS: This study is a cluster-specific pre-post trial, with randomized and staggered implementation of the e-transfer tool in four hospitals in Calgary, Alberta. Hospitals (ie, clusters) were allocated randomly to cross over every 2 months from control (ie, dictation only) to intervention (ie, e-transfer tool). Implementation at each site was facilitated with user education, point-of-care support, and audit and feedback. We will compare transfer summaries randomly sampled over 6 months postimplementation to summaries randomly sampled over 6 months preimplementation. The primary outcome will be a binary composite measure of the timeliness and completeness of transfer summaries. Secondary measures will include overall completeness, timeliness, and provider ratings of transfer summaries; hospital and ICU lengths of stay; and post-ICU patient outcomes, including ICU readmission, adverse events, cardiac arrest, rapid response team activation, and mortality. We will use descriptive statistics (ie, medians and means) to describe demographic characteristics. The primary outcome will be compared within each hospital pre- and postimplementation using separate logistic regression models for each hospital, with adjustment for patient characteristics. RESULTS: Participating hospitals were cluster randomized to the intervention between July 2018 and January 2019. Preliminary extraction of ICU patient admission lists was completed in September 2019. We anticipate that evaluation data collection will be completed by early 2021, with first results ready for publication in spring or summer 2021. CONCLUSIONS: This study will report the impact of implementing an evidence-informed, computer-enabled, ICU-specific structured transfer tool on communication and preventable medical errors among patients transferred from the ICU to other hospital care units. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03590002; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03590002. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/18675.

Structure and Content of Drug Monitoring Advices Included in Discharge Letters at Interfaces of Care: Exploratory Analysis Preceding Database Development.

BACKGROUND: Inadequate drug monitoring of drug therapy after hospital discharge facilitates adverse drug events and preventable hospital readmissions. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the structure and content of drug monitoring advices of a representative sample of discharge letters as a basis for future electronic information systems. METHODS: On 2 days in November 2016, all discharge letters of 3 departments of a university hospital were extracted from the hospital information system. The frequency, content, and structure of drug monitoring advices in discharge letters were investigated and compared with the theoretical monitoring requirements expressed in the corresponding summaries of product characteristics (SmPC). The quality of the drug monitoring advices in the discharge letters was rated with the domains of an adapted systematic instructions for monitoring (SIM) score. RESULTS: In total, 154 discharge letters were analyzed containing 1180 brands (240 active pharmaceutical substances), of which 50.42% (595/1180) could theoretically be amended with a monitoring advice according to the SmPC. In reality, 40 discharge letters (26.0%, 40/154) contained a total of 66 monitoring advices for 57 brands (4.83%, 57/1180), comprising 18 different monitoring parameters. Drug monitoring advices only addressed mean 1.9 (SD 0.8) of the 7 domains of the SIM score and frequently did not address reasons for monitoring (86%, 57/66), the timing of monitoring, that is, the start (76%, 50/66), the frequency (94%, 63/66), the stop (95%, 63/66), and how to react (83%, 55/66). CONCLUSIONS: Drug monitoring advices were mostly absent in discharge letters and a gold standard for appropriate drug monitoring advices was lacking. Hence, more effort should be put in the development of tools that facilitate easy presentation of clinically meaningful drug monitoring advices at the point of care.

Pharmacist-Physician Collaboration to Improve the Accuracy of Medication Information in Electronic Medical Discharge Summaries: Effectiveness and Sustainability.

Inaccurate or missing medication information in medical discharge summaries is a widespread and intractable problem. This study evaluated the effectiveness and sustainability of an intervention in which ward-based hospital pharmacists reviewed, contributed and verified medication information in electronic discharge summaries (EDSs) in collaboration with physicians. Retrospective audits of randomly selected EDSs were conducted on seven wards at a major public hospital before and after implementation of the intervention and repeated two years later on four wards where the intervention was incorporated into usual pharmacist care. EDSs for 265 patients (prescribed a median of nine discharge medications) were assessed across the three time points. Pharmacists verified the EDSs for 47% patients in the first post-intervention audit and 68% patients in the second post-intervention audit. Following the intervention, the proportion of patients with one or more clinically significant discharge medication list discrepancy fell from 40/93 (43%) to 14/92 (15%), p < 0.001. The proportion of clinically significant medication changes stated in the EDSs increased from 222/417 (53%) to 296/366 (81%), p < 0.001, and the proportion both stated and explained increased from 206/417 (49%) to 245/366 (67%), p < 0.001. Significant improvements were still evident after two years. Pharmacists spent a median of 5 (range 2-16) minutes per patient contributing to EDSs. Logistics, timing and pharmacist workload were barriers to delivering the intervention. Additional staff resources is needed to enable pharmacists to consistently deliver this effective intervention.

[Approach to the causes of discharge and health needs of transgender people through the National Hospital Discharge Survey in Spain during the period 2001 to 2013]. / Aproximación a las causas de ingreso de las personas trans a través del conjunto mínimo básico de datos en España durante el periodo 2001 a 2013.

OBJECTIVE: The health of transgender people is a little studied topic and hospital records can be an opportunity to make an approach. The aim of this study was to describe the cause for admission and the associated comorbidities of transgender people in Spain between 2001 and 2013. METHODS: Retrospective observational study with population-based administrative records (Minimum Basic Data Set). The discharges generated by the transgender in Spanish public and private hospitals were selected using one of the following ICD-9-CM codes in any diagnostic field: Trans-sexualism (302.5), Disorders of psychosexual identity (302.6) and Gender identity disorder in adolescents or adults (302.85). The causes of admission and comorbidity according were described. The qualitative variables were described in their frequency distribution according to their number(n) and proportion(%) and the quantitative variables according to their mean and standard deviation (SD) or median (MD) and interquartile range (RIQ) according to their distribution. RESULTS: A total of 2,010 highs were recorded corresponding to 1,878 patients. The mean age was 33 years (SD = 10). 51% were male, 46% female and 3% undetermined or unspecified. The discharges were motivated in 59% by the process of body modification, followed by HIV (4%) and personality disorders (3%). The most common comorbidities were those associated with body modification (49%), mental health problems (40%) and infectious diseases (15%). CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to address the health of transgender people in a comprehensive way that takes into account their specific health needs, including bodily modification, mental health, HIV and other infections, through strategies that include improve research, tailor health information systems and develop guidelines and training of healthcare providers in this transgender health.

OBJETIVO: La salud de las personas transexuales es un tema poco estudiado y los registros hospitalarios pueden suponer una oportunidad para hacer una aproximación. El objetivo de este trabajo fue describir el motivo de ingreso hospitalario y las comorbilidades asociadas de las personas transexuales en España entre los años 2001 y 2013. METODOS: Estudio observacional con registros administrativos de base poblacional (Conjunto Mínimo Básico de Datos). Se seleccionaron las altas generadas de los hospitales españoles con alguno de los siguientes códigos CIE-9-MC en cualquier campo diagnóstico: Transexualismo (302.5), Trastorno de identidad sexual en niños (302.6) y Trastornos de identidad sexual en adolescentes o adultos (302.85). Se describieron las causas de ingreso y las comorbilidadades. Las variables cualitativas se describieron en su distribución de frecuencias según su número (n) y proporción (%) y las variables cuantitativas según su media y desviación estándar (DE) o mediana (MD) y rango intercuartíl (RIC) según su distribución. RESULTADOS: Se registraron 2.010 altas correspondientes a 1.878 pacientes. La edad media fue de 33 años (DE = 10). El 51% eran varones, el 46% mujeres y el 3% indeterminado. Los motivos de ingreso más frecuentes fueron los relacionados con proceso de transición (59%), seguido de VIH (4%) y trastornos de la personalidad (3%). Las comorbilidades más frecuentes estuvieron relacionadas con el proceso de transición (49%), los problemas de salud mental (40%) y las enfermedades infecciosas (15%). CONCLUSIONES: Es necesario abordar la salud de las personas trans teniendo en cuenta sus necesidades específicas de salud, entre las que se encuentran la modificación corporal, la salud mental, el VIH y otras infecciones mediante estrategias que incluyan la investigación, la adecuación de los sistemas de información sanitaria, la elaboración de guías de atención y la formación de personal de salud.

Contents of Informational and Management Continuity of Care.

Continuity of patient care (COC) is considered an essential feature of good quality care, but the ambiguity of the concept has given rise to methodological challenges in scientific studies. This study has a strong link to the functional definitions of electronic health records (EHR). In order to evaluate how COC is achieved, through a discharge summary, for example, the contents of COC should be defined. Conceptual consensus on COC as a multidimensional concept has increased. This study was conducted to provide an overview of the dimensions and descriptions of informational and management continuity of care. A scoping review was conducted. We found that informational continuity of care refers to data tool, data content, data structures or information quality related processes. Management continuity of care refers to information flow, co-operation, co-ordination, multiprofessionality or management processes. We identified the need to define next the contents of relational and cross-border continuities.