Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • LATEST ARTICLES
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP Open
    • BJGP Open Accessibility Statement
    • Editorial Board
    • Editorial Fellowships
    • Audio Abstracts
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Outreach
    • BJGP Life
    • Research into Publication Science
    • Advertising
    • Contact
  • SPECIAL ISSUES
    • Special issue: Telehealth
    • Special issue: Race and Racism in Primary Care
    • Special issue: COVID-19 and Primary Care
    • Past research calls
    • Top 10 Research Articles of the Year
  • CONFERENCE
  • RCGP
    • British Journal of General Practice
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
BJGP Open
  • RCGP
    • British Journal of General Practice
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
BJGP Open

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • LATEST ARTICLES
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP Open
    • BJGP Open Accessibility Statement
    • Editorial Board
    • Editorial Fellowships
    • Audio Abstracts
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Outreach
    • BJGP Life
    • Research into Publication Science
    • Advertising
    • Contact
  • SPECIAL ISSUES
    • Special issue: Telehealth
    • Special issue: Race and Racism in Primary Care
    • Special issue: COVID-19 and Primary Care
    • Past research calls
    • Top 10 Research Articles of the Year
  • CONFERENCE
Research

Processing discharge summaries in general practice: a qualitative interview study with GPs and practice managers

Rachel A Spencer, Sarah Rodgers, Ndeshi Salema, Stephen M Campbell and Anthony J Avery
BJGP Open 2019; 3 (1): bjgpopen18X101625. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgpopen18X101625
Rachel A Spencer
1NIHR Career Progression Fellow, Division of Primary Care, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, , UK
2NIHR Career Progression Fellow, Division of Primary Care, University of Warwick, , UK
3NIHR Career Progression Fellow, NIHR School for Primary Care Research, , UK
BMedSci, MRCGP
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sarah Rodgers
4Principal Research Fellow, Division of Primary Care, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, , UK
PhD
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ndeshi Salema
5Senior Research Fellow, Division of Primary Care, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, , UK
PhD
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Stephen M Campbell
6Professor, Centre for Primary Care, University of Manchester, , UK
7Director, NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre, University of Manchester, , UK
8Professor, NIHR School for Primary Care Research, , UK
PhD
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Anthony J Avery
9Dean of the School of Medicine and Professor of Primary Health Care, Division of Primary Care, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, , UK
10Professor, NIHR School for Primary Care Research, , UK
PhD
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: Anthony.Avery@nottingham.ac.uk
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Background Discharge summaries are essential for communicating patient information from secondary care to general practice on hospital discharge. Although there has been extensive research into their design and completion in secondary care, very little is known about primary care processing of these documents.

Aim To explore what general practice staff think are the factors associated with failure to respond to actions requested in discharge summaries and what practices do to mitigate this.

Design & setting Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with primary care staff in three geographical regions of England.

Method Interviews with 10 practice managers and 10 GPs (one of each at each of the 10 practices) were undertaken to explore management of discharge summaries.

Results Five themes emerged from the interviews. The 'secondary care factors' theme describes participants’ perspectives on the design of summaries, which are inconsistent and often require improvement. The 'safety features of processing systems' theme focuses on document handling in primary care. A theme devoted to 'medicines reconciliation' followed. 'Error and harm as a result of faulty processing' is a theme describing ‘human error’ and other factors that participants believed contributed to failure to respond to requested actions. Finally, the 'strategies for safety improvement' theme describes initiatives to prevent failures of safer transitions of care.

Conclusion Correct processing of discharge summaries is essential to ensure patients experience a safe transition of care and not just a hospital discharge. Based on the interview findings, strategies to mitigate against faults in the processing of discharge summaries have been suggested to enhance safer transitions of care.

  • patient safety
  • education and standards
  • qualitative research
  • research methods
  • care of the elderly
  • patient groups
  • Received May 3, 2018.
  • Accepted August 20, 2018.
  • Copyright © The Authors 2019

This article is Open Access: CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

View Full Text
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

BJGP Open
Vol. 3, Issue 1
April 2019
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Email Article

Thank you for recommending BJGP Open.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Processing discharge summaries in general practice: a qualitative interview study with GPs and practice managers
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from BJGP Open
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from BJGP Open.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Processing discharge summaries in general practice: a qualitative interview study with GPs and practice managers
Rachel A Spencer, Sarah Rodgers, Ndeshi Salema, Stephen M Campbell, Anthony J Avery
BJGP Open 2019; 3 (1): bjgpopen18X101625. DOI: 10.3399/bjgpopen18X101625

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Processing discharge summaries in general practice: a qualitative interview study with GPs and practice managers
Rachel A Spencer, Sarah Rodgers, Ndeshi Salema, Stephen M Campbell, Anthony J Avery
BJGP Open 2019; 3 (1): bjgpopen18X101625. DOI: 10.3399/bjgpopen18X101625
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • How this fits in
    • Introduction
    • Method
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Notes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • patient safety
  • Education and standards
  • qualitative research
  • Research methods
  • Care of the elderly
  • Patient groups

More in this TOC Section

  • General practice service use at the end-of-life before and during the COVID pandemic: a population-based cohort study using primary care electronic health records
  • Patients’ experience with German primary care practices during Covid-19: an interview study
  • The DAWN antivirals trial: process evaluation of a COVID-19 trial in general practice
Show more Research

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

Tweets by @BJGPOpen

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Latest articles
  • Authors & reviewers
  • Accessibility statement

RCGP

  • British Journal of General Practice
  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP Open
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP Open: research
  • Writing for BJGP Open: practice & policy
  • BJGP Open editorial process & policies
  • BJGP Open ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP Open

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Open access licence

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Open Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: bjgpopen@rcgp.org.uk

BJGP Open is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners

© 2023 BJGP Open

Online ISSN: 2398-3795