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Sample discharge letter from hospital10/31/2023 ![]() Thus, ensuring high standards of discharge communication and improving current processes is important. Nonetheless, it is known that lack of care continuity through sub-standard discharge communication can lead to adverse outcomes such as preventable readmissions. The factors influencing this variation and the extent of the subsequent impacts and effects on patients remain equivocal. Previous research indicates the quality and content of discharge letters may vary and does not always satisfy the requirements of those receiving them (e.g. Hence, patients may or may not receive these discharge communication letters but the reasons for this and subsequent effects remain unclear. Whilst in the UK patients receiving letters is considered ‘good practice’ and encouraged through initiatives and guidelines, it is not standardised. ![]() outpatient or inpatient), and the individual preferences and style of the physician who authored the content. The content and structure of such discharge letters vary depending on the speciality, type of hospital care (e.g. Such communication is generally described as being a “discharge letter” in the UK, and this is the term that we have used throughout the current paper. Written discharge communication may be sent electronically or in hard copy they may contain information relating but not limited to a summary of the patient’s hospital visit, treatment and required followed up. In the UK, “discharge communication” may follow inpatient or outpatient discharge and typically takes written form as a discharge letter or summary sent from the discharging clinical team to the clinician who is to continue patient care, usually the General Practitioner (GP). The communication that takes place in relation to hospital discharge may be termed “discharge communication”. This is particularly key following care transitions, such as when discharging patients from hospital. Effective communication and co-ordination between healthcare professionals and patients to facilitate positive outcomes is essential. This means use of resources must be maximised, inefficiencies that are due to fragmented care or duplication of care need to be avoided, and patients need to be supported to self-care and self-manage more effectively. The pressure on health services is heightening, in large part due to the need to cope with an increasingly multi-morbid and ageing population. Findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals, reports and newsletters, and presentations. Ethics approval was granted in July 2017 by the UK Health Research Authority. Recommendations for improving discharge letters and the process of patients receiving letters will be made, with the intention of informing guidelines on discharge communication. Patient and practitioner involvement will inform design decisions and interpretation of findings. This mixed-methods study is novel in attempting to triangulate views of patients, GPs and HPs in relation to specific discharge letters. The methods for analysis draw on techniques from the fields of Applied Linguistics and Health Sciences, including: corpus linguistics inferential statistics content analysis. ![]() These “quartets” allow direct comparisons between different discharge experiences within the same communicative event. Participant viewpoints are collected through interviews, focus groups and surveys and will be “matched” to the discharge letter sample, so forming multiple-perspective “quartet” cases. These letters identified potential participants who were invited to take part: the HP letter writer, GP recipient and patient. Participating GPs initially screened and selected a range of recent discharge letters which they assessed to be successful and unsuccessful exemplars. The research aimed to recruit a minimum of 30 GPs, 30 patients and 30 HPs in order to capture 90 experiences of discharge communication. The setting was a region in the West Midlands of England, UK. The study has a particular focus on the impacts of receiving or not receiving letters on patient experiences and quality of care. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate from GP, hospital professional (HP) and patient perspectives how to improve processes of patients receiving letters and increase quality of discharge letters. Relatively little is known about the barriers and enablers to sending patients discharge letters. These letters are often sent from the hospital discharging physician to the referring clinician, typically the patient’s General Practitioner (GP) in the UK, and patients may or may not be copied into them. Research indicates a need for improvement to increase quality of care and decrease adverse outcomes. Discharge letters are crucial during care transitions from hospital to home.
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