EP.TU.79Assessed and Discharged - An Audit of Discharge Summaries Completion During On-Calls

Abstract

Abstract Aim Effective health care provision is heavily dependent on timely, reliable transfer of patient information. Failure of this communication between professionals could result in redundancy of tests, delay in treatment, which may in turn endanger patient safety. The NHS Standard Contract requirements state discharge summaries should be completed within 24 hours of hospital assessment and discharge. Discharge summaries for patients who were reviewed but not admitted have been observed to be poorly completed during on-calls and this audit aims to clarify this. Method On-Call Patient Lists between 1 December to 14 December 2020 were studied retrospectively. Patients who were assessed by the on-call surgical team but not admitted were included in the audit. Patients referred to other specialties were excluded. Hospital electronic system was reviewed for electronic records from the encounter including clinical note or discharge summary. Results In total, 47 patients were identified during the 2 week- period. 40/47 patients were referred from AE and 9 of these patients were discharged from AE directly. 3 of the patients had a clinical note or discharge summary completed on the hospital electronic system. Overall, 18 of the 47 (38.3%) patients had a clinical note or discharge summary on the electronic system, with 6 (12.8%) of them being recorded as discharge summaries. Conclusion The overall completion of discharge summaries for this group of patients was poor. Awareness of this failing and the importance of professional communication should be highlighted with the juniors during surgical meeting to improve compliance.