|
Thoughts and opinion from the wards
|
|
The Pretence of Better Communication
10 years ago in the NHS most consultants used to do discharge summary letters for their in-patients. Quite rightly so. The discharge summary was and is the only communication that the hospital provides to primary care on what happened to the patient in the hospital. It is one of the most important pieces communication that the specialist sends to the generalist. It was the knowledge of the expert given as an opinion. It was also an opportunity for the consultant to review and reflect on the care provided, identify errors and recognise the capability/limitations of the team members.
5 years ago the consultants mostly devolved this responsibility to some experienced staff working with them such as Staff Grades or Registrars. The discharge letter became a task that had to be done. Information was passed to the general practitioners.
Now, the discharge letters are electronic and are primarily if not exclusively done by FY1s or FY2s who are the least experienced doctors in the system. Discharge letters are a part of the contractual requirement to be sent within a set time. There is enormous data within those discharge letters which is sent to the GP more or less contemporaneously. The junior doctors do a very good job; of transmitting data; they cannot with their level or training, expertise and experience do anything more.
Anyone who knows a little about this things will recognise that to derive any meaning or learning from what we do on a day to day basis, data has to be processed and assembled to generate information; information has to be analysed and contextualised to create knowledge. In the case of the NHS discharge summaries, knowledge transmission has now deteriorated into data transmission. Transparency and detail which are important have taken the place of trust and succinct senior opinion which are equally important.
The most crucial and often the only piece of communication from hospitals to general practices is now generated by a combination of off the shelf software programmes filled in by the junior most medical staff. Of course there are reasons for this, the letters can be generated quicker, can reach general practitioners on time and the current economic climate a consultant who is an expensive human resource is better used doing actual clinical work. Fully understandable.
But let us not delude ourselves by harping on about the primacy of communication.
My regular blogs can be found at http://successinhealthcare.blogspot.co.uk/
|
Recent Entries
Archives
|
My gut feeling is this occurs in less than a third of the discharge letters I receive. The good ones are excellent, the bad ones are dangerous as they often have drug errors and in one recent case in was obvious the drug list belonged to a completely different patient!
all that high tech assessments, investigations( often repeated on admission when already done in primary care!) therapeutics, allied health input is all a waste of time effort and money unless the communication with the GP team is correct.
Why o why can't we get it right? Talk about inefficiency!
GPs are fed up with the patient arriving in their surgeries with a bag full of drugs and having to sort it all out on a Friday evening surgery!
Lets talk!
A junior writes prose with hundreds of words which contain turgid detail but no cerebration.
When I write in a chart for a consultation, I write ideas not drab nouns and adjectives. If it does not convey ideas it is a waste of ink.
Few write an overview. It is the privilege of experience and wit.
Most write a score with notes but no song.
Compose scores with a song, not an oratorio with no meaning.