Abstract
BackgroundUK 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.MethodsSemi-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.ResultsParticipants 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.ConclusionsMost 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.
Highlights
United Kingdom (UK) government guidelines and initiatives emphasise equity in delivery of care, shared decisionmaking, and patient-centred care
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
The recent “please write to me” [4] initiative by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges sought to increase practice of patients receiving letters through encouraging clinicians to write to patients directly in plain language and copy the letters to the patient’s General Practitioner (GP); this initiative [4] has received both support [5] and criticism [6]
Summary
UK government guidelines and initiatives emphasise equity in delivery of care, shared decisionmaking, 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. UK government guidelines and initiatives [1,2,3] emphasise equity in delivery of care, shared decision-making, and patient-centred care Research in some countries, such as Australia [12, 13] and the Netherlands [14], has looked at the use of patientdirected or personalised letters
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
