ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2018
Processing of discharge summaries in general practice: a retrospective record review.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis on the risks of medical discharge letters for patients' safety.BMC health services research · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- General practice follow-up after hospital discharge in older adults: retrospective record analysis in UK primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Multilingual Evidence-Based Question-Answering for Stroke Discharge Summaries: Study of Cross-Lingual Heterogeneity in Clinical Reports.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Pilot of a novel patient-led intervention for postdischarge from hospital management of older patients' care in general practice.Family medicine and community health · 2026Article
- One template does not fit all: where next to improve hospital discharge communication to primary care?Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Safety issues in post-discharge care of older patients in general practice: an ethnographic study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Article
- Do marked discharge summaries with recommendation text boxes enhance patient safety? A nationwide survey.BJGP open · 2025Article
- Improving discharge summaries from hospital with a brief recommendation text box: results from a nationwide survey.BJGP open · 2024Article
- General practice management after transition events: protocol for an experience-based co-design study.BJGP open · 2024Article
- The complexities of communication at hospital discharge of older patients: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals' views.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Article
- Article
- Exploring pharmacist involvement in the discharge medicines reconciliation process and information transfer to primary care: an observational study.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2022Observational
- Improving mental health care transitions through information capture during admission to inpatient mental health services: a quality improvement study.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- What makes a "successful" or "unsuccessful" discharge letter? Hospital clinician and General Practitioner assessments of the quality of discharge letters.BMC health services research · 2021Article
- Article
- Developing Best Practice Guidance for Discharge Planning Using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Making hospital discharge safer for frail older patients.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is a need for greater understanding of the epidemiology of primary care patient safety in order to generate solutions to prevent future harm.
aimTo estimate the rate of failures in processing actions requested in hospital discharge summaries, and to determine factors associated with these failures. DESIGN AND
settingThe authors undertook a retrospective records review. The study population was emergency admissions for patients aged ≥75 years, drawn from 10 practices in three areas of England.
methodOne GP researcher reviewed the records for 300 patients after hospital discharge to determine the rate of compliance with actions requested in the discharge summary, and to estimate the rate of associated harm from non-compliance. In cases where GPs documented decision-making contrary to what was requested, these instances did not constitute failures. Data were also collected on time taken to process discharge communications.
resultsThere were failures in processing actions requested in 46% (112/246) of discharge summaries (95% confidence interval [CI] = 39 to 52%). Medications changes were not made in 17% (124/750) of requests (95% CI = 14 to 19%). Tests were not completed for 26% of requests (95% CI = 16 to 35%), and 27% of requested follow-ups were not arranged (95% CI = 20 to 33%). The harm rate associated with these failures was 8%. Increased risk of failure to process test requests was significantly associated with the type of clinical IT system, and male patients.
conclusionFailures occurred in the processing of requested actions in almost half of all discharge summaries, and with all types of action requested. Associated harms were uncommon and most were of moderate severity.
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