104 Assessing for Delirium in A District General Emergency Department—Why are We Failing and How can We Improve?

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. i12-i42
Author(s):  
J Pickard ◽  
R Morris ◽  
I Crawford ◽  
R Mansi
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Discharge Summary ◽  
Grand Round ◽  
Medical Patients ◽  
Delirium Assessment ◽  
Discharge Letter ◽  
Medical Emergencies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Discharge Summaries

Abstract Introduction Delirium is among the most common of medical emergencies with a prevalence of 20% in adult acute general medical patients. Despite this delirium is underdiagnosed and treatment is variable. Assessment of delirium is missed or carried out unreliably in EDs. Methodology Using the Model for Improvement, we developed a driver diagram to plan our project. Assessing whether patients over 65 years old were assessed for delirium during their visit to the ED using a validated tool over a 6-month period. Evaluating the impact of our interventions using annotated run charts. Exclusion criteria—GCS under 13, NEWS2 greater than 5. Aim Identify current performance of delirium assessment in over 65 s in Weston General Hospital ED and improve to 100% of over 65 s screened. Assess whether this has been communicated in the discharge summary. Results Baseline data showed 22.2% (4/18) of patients meeting inclusion criteria were screened for delirium. We implemented multiple interventions over a 2-month period—discussing at ED handover, hospital wide email, presentation at grand round and displaying a poster in the ED. In the 6 weeks after the interventions were implemented there was increase to 45.4% (15/33) of patients over 65 screened. Delirium/cognitive impairment identified in 42.5% (48/113) of patients screened. This is higher than the national average of hospital admissions therefore it is likely people screen those who display signs of delirium. Cognitive impairment communicated in discharge letter in only 29.4% (33/113) of all patients. Conclusion There has been a great improvement in delirium screening. However, we did not meet our target of 100% of patients being screened. Interventions currently being implemented—addition of SQID tool to minors clerking document, addition of compulsory tick box delirium question on all discharge summaries. Further data will be collected to assess effectiveness of these interventions.

68 A Full Audit Cycle: Documentation of Discharge Summaries and Functional Status in Electronic Discharge Letters

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. i12-i42
Author(s):  
A Mir ◽  
S Damany ◽  
H S Tay
Keyword(s):  
Hospital Admission ◽  
Functional Status ◽  
Discharge Summary ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Missing Information ◽  
Discharge Letter ◽  
Audit Cycle ◽  
Comparative Results ◽  
Discharge Summaries

Abstract Introduction Electronic discharge letter is the most effective way to handover to General Practitioners for the continuity of care by providing the information about what happened during hospitalisation and what needs to happen after discharge. Well written discharge letters prevent miscommunication, missing information and medications errors as well as reduction of hospital workload. It also provides timely follow up to decrease the risk of re-hospitalisation. The aim of this project is to analyse the documentation of discharge summaries and functional status after hospital admission in discharge letters. Discharge summary template was introduced and made compulsory in all Geriatric wards following first cycle of audit. We then compared data after introduction of discharge summary template. Methods Electronic discharge letters were reviewed for all patients discharged from Geriatric Department in July 2019 and results were compared with data from January 2019. Results 162 patients were discharged in the second cycle of audit. Among these, 18 patients were deceased, and 4 patients had no discharge letters available. Therefore, total number of discharge letters analysed was 140. Please see Table 1 for comparative results on documentation of discharge summaries in discharge letters. Conclusions Introduction of the discharge summary template improved the documentation of summaries in discharge letters. Well-written discharge letter ensures the smooth transition for when patients leave the hospital. Therefore, it should be accurate, precise and relevant.

Analysis of an intervention on discharge summary quality and timeliness

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Rose Mourra ◽  
Jason S Fish ◽  
Michael Adam Pfeffer
Keyword(s):  
Hospital Discharge ◽  
Discharge Summary ◽  
Monetary Incentive ◽  
Regression Modeling ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Patient Demographics ◽  
Time To Completion ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Discharge Summaries

Objective: Deficits in communication between inpatient and outpatient physicians in the post-hospital discharge period are common and potentially detrimental to person-centered doctor-patient relationships and to patient health. This study assesses the impact of a hospital discharge improvement project implemented at an urban academic hospital, aimed at improving the timeliness and quality of discharge summaries using a standardized discharge template, education and a small monetary incentive. Methods: A random sample of 624 charts from an academic, urban hospitalist medicine service was analyzed from the pre- and post-project implementation time periods: 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. The sampling was evenly distributed throughout the months of the year. Ordinary linear regression modeling was used to evaluate the impact of the intervention on time to completion; logistic regression modeling was used to assess the impact on the quality of the discharge summaries. Both models control for patient characteristics, hospitalization acuity and in-hospital continuity of care.Results: Unadjusted time to discharge summary completion rates decreased by 2.4 days (p<0.001) between the pre- and post-implementation times. Controlling for patient demographics, acuity of hospitalization and hand-offs between physicians, time to completion of discharge summaries was decreased by 2.17 days (p< 0.001). The odds of including at least 50% of the recommended information into a discharge summary post-intervention was 6.44 (p<0.001) compared to the odds before the intervention, controlling for patient demographics, acuity of hospitalization and hand-offs between physicians. Conclusion: The use of education, a simple formatted recommended discharge template and a small monetary incentive improved both the timeliness and quality of the information exchanged between inpatient and outpatient providers and contributes significantly to a person-centered healthcare.

scholarly journals A multistage mixed methods study protocol to evaluate the implementation and impact of a reconfiguration of acute medicine in Ireland’s hospitals

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Hurley ◽  
S. McHugh ◽  
J. Browne ◽  
L. Vaughan ◽  
C. Normand
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Hospital Stay ◽  
Patient Care ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Hospital Setting ◽  
Length Of Hospital Stay ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Medical Patients ◽  
Acute Medicine ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background To address deficits in the delivery of acute services in Ireland, the National Acute Medicine Programme (NAMP) was established in 2010 to optimise the management of acutely ill medical patients in the hospital setting, and to ensure their supported discharge to primary and community-based care. NAMP aims to reduce inappropriate hospital admissions, reduce length of hospital stay and ensure patients receive timely treatment in the most appropriate setting. It does so primarily via the development of Acute Medical Assessment Units (AMAUs) for the rapid assessment and management of medical patients presenting to hospitals, as well as streamlining the care of those admitted for further care. This study will examine the impact of this programme on patient care and identify the factors influencing its implementation and operation. Methods We will use a multistage mixed methods evaluation with an explanatory sequential design. Firstly, we will develop a logic model to describe the programme’s outcomes, its components and the mechanisms of change by which it expects to achieve these outcomes. Then we will assess implementation by measuring utilisation of the Units and comparing the organisational functions implemented to that recommended by the NAMP model of care. Using comparative case study research, we will identify the factors which have influenced the programme’s implementation and its operation using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to guide data collection and analysis. This will be followed by an estimation of the impact of the programme on reducing overnight emergency admissions for potentially avoidable medical conditions, and reducing length of hospital stay of acute medical patients. Lastly, data from each stage will be integrated to examine how the programme’s outcomes can be explained by the level of implementation. Discussion This formative evaluation will enable us to examine whether the NAMP is improving patient care and importantly draw conclusions on how it is doing so. It will identify the factors that contribute to how well the programme is being implemented in the real-world. Lessons learnt will be instrumental in sustaining this programme as well as planning, implementing, and assessing other transformative programmes, especially in the acute care setting.

scholarly journals COgnitive-Pulmonary Disease

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona A. H. M. Cleutjens ◽  
Daisy J. A. Janssen ◽  
Rudolf W. H. M. Ponds ◽  
Jeanette B. Dijkstra ◽  
Emiel F. M. Wouters
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Systemic Disease ◽  
Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
The Impact

Over the past few decades, chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) has been considered a disease of the lungs, often caused by smoking. Nowadays, COPD is regarded as a systemic disease. Both physical effects and effects on brains, including impaired psychological and cognitive functioning, have been demonstrated. Patients with COPD may have cognitive impairment, either globally or in single cognitive domains, such as information processing, attention and concentration, memory, executive functioning, and self-control. Possible causes are hypoxemia, hypercapnia, exacerbations, and decreased physical activity. Cognitive impairment in these patients may be related to structural brain abnormalities, such as gray-matter pathologic changes and the loss of white matter integrity which can be induced by smoking. Cognitive impairment can have a negative impact on health and daily life and may be associated with widespread consequences for disease management programs. It is important to assess cognitive functioning in patients with COPD in order to optimize patient-oriented treatment and to reduce personal discomfort, hospital admissions, and mortality. This paper will summarize the current knowledge about cognitive impairment as extrapulmonary feature of COPD. Hereby, the impact of smoking on cognitive functioning and the impact of cognitive impairment on smoking behaviour will be examined.

scholarly journals Quality assessment of discharge summaries from an emergency department in eastern Nepal

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-47
Author(s):  
Rajani Giri ◽  
R Bhandari ◽  
M Poudel ◽  
P P Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Department ◽  
Drug Allergy ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Clinical Information ◽  
Discharge Summary ◽  
Admission Diagnosis ◽  
Discharge Diagnosis ◽  
Ease Of Access ◽  
Outpatient Settings ◽  
Discharge Summaries

Background: Discharge summaries are intended to transfer important clinical information from inpatient to outpatient settings and between hospital admissions. A good discharge summary helps physician to provide continuity of care which will in turn improve patient outcomes. Despite the importance of the discharge summary, there has been relatively little research in this area in Nepal. We therefore decided to review discharge summaries of patients discharged from emergency department in eastern Nepal.Objective: To assess the completeness of discharge summaries from emergency department. Methods: A total of 360 discharge summaries, representing 20% of discharge from the emergency department of B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal were randomly selected and evaluated. Quality of discharge for completeness was evaluated using recommendations by Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital for the presence or absence of the following key items: admission diagnosis, drug allergy, physical examination, significant laboratory test and results, discharge diagnosis, procedures, discharge medication (including dose and duration), follow up and attending physician signature.Results: The proportion of discharge summaries missing particular component of vital data ranged from less than 4% (no discharge medications) to 97% (no mention of drug allergy). Information was missing on patients discharge condition (74%), hospital course (61%), discharge instruction (57%) and the discharge diagnosis in (13%). Most of the discharge summaries were partially structured representing 75%. Ease of access to the diagnosis was 78%.Conclusions: Though most of the discharge summaries were structured and access to the diagnosis was 78%, considerable deficiencies in the completeness of discharge summaries were found. Health Renaissance 2015;13 (3): 41-47

scholarly journals What makes a “successful” or “unsuccessful” discharge letter? Hospital clinician and General Practitioner assessments of the quality of discharge letters

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Weetman ◽  
Rachel Spencer ◽  
Jeremy Dale ◽  
Emma Scott ◽  
Stephanie Schnurr
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Care Transitions ◽  
Discharge Summary ◽  
Free Text ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Discharge Letter ◽  
Guidelines And Standards ◽  
Medication Changes ◽  
Discharge Summaries

Abstract Background Sharing information about hospital care with primary care in the form of a discharge summary is essential to patient safety. In the United Kingdom, although discharge summary targets on timeliness have been achieved, the quality of discharge summaries’ content remains variable. Methods Mixed methods study in West Midlands, England with three parts: 1. General Practitioners (GPs) sampling discharge summaries they assessed to be “successful” or “unsuccessful” exemplars, 2. GPs commenting on the reasons for their letter assessment, and 3. surveying the hospital clinicians who wrote the sampled letters for their views. Letters were examined using content analysis; we coded 15 features (e.g. “diagnosis”, “GP plan”) based on relevant guidelines and standards. Free text comments were analysed using corpus linguistics, and survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results Fifty-three GPs participated in selecting discharge letters; 46 clinicians responded to the hospital survey. There were statistically significant differences between “successful” and “unsuccessful” inpatient letters (n = 375) in relation to inclusion of the following elements: reason for admission (99.1% vs 86.5%); diagnosis (97.4% vs 74.5%), medication changes (61.5% vs 48.9%); reasons for medication changes (32.1% vs 18.4%); hospital plan/actions (70.5% vs 50.4%); GP plan (69.7% vs 53.2%); information to patient (38.5% vs 24.8%); tests/procedures performed (97.0% vs 74.5%), and test/examination results (96.2% vs 77.3%). Unexplained acronyms and jargon were identified in the majority of the sample (≥70% of letters). Analysis of GP comments highlighted that the overall clarity of discharge letters is important for effective and safe care transitions and that they should be relevant, concise, and comprehensible. Hospital clinicians identified several barriers to producing “successful” letters, including: juniors writing letters, time limitations, writing letters retrospectively from patient notes, and template restrictions. Conclusions The failure to uniformly implement national discharge letter guidance into practice is continuing to contribute to unsuccessful communication between hospital and general practice. While the study highlighted barriers to producing high quality discharge summaries which may be addressed through training and organisational initiatives, it also indicates a need for ongoing audit to ensure the quality of letters and so reduce patient risk at the point of hospital discharge.

scholarly journals Venous Thromboprophylaxis in Uk Medical Inpatients

2005 ◽  
Vol 98 (11) ◽  
pp. 507-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
S T Rashid ◽  
M R Thursz ◽  
N A Razvi ◽  
R Voller ◽  
T Orchard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Venous Thromboembolism ◽  
Grand Round ◽  
Teaching Hospitals ◽  
Medical Patients ◽  
Vte Prophylaxis ◽  
Single Presentation ◽  
Medical Inpatients ◽  
Recommended Guidelines ◽  
The Impact

We prospectively assessed the implementation of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis guidelines and the impact of grand round presentation of the data in changing clinical practice. Two NHS teaching hospitals were studied for 24 months from January 2003. Patients were risk stratified according to the THRIFT (thromboembolic risk factor) consensus group guidelines and compared with the recommendations of the THRIFT and ACCP (American College of Chest Physicians) consensus groups. Six months following presentation of the initial results, a further analysis was made to assess changes in clinical practice. 1128 patients were assessed of whom 1062 satisfied the inclusion criteria for thromboprophylaxis. 89% of all patients were stratified as having high or moderate risk of developing VTE. Of these only 28% were prescribed some form of thromboprophylaxis–-4% received the THRIFT-recommended and 22% received the ACCP-recommended thromboprophylaxis. The vast majority (72%) received no thromboprophylaxis at all. Reassessment, following data presentation at grand rounds, showed a significant increase to 31% in patients receiving THRIFT (P<0.0001) and ACCP (P=0.002) recommended thromboprophylaxis. However, the proportion of patients receiving no form of prophylaxis barely changed (72% to 69%: P=0.59). We found a gross underutilization of thromboprophylaxis in hospitalized medical patients. A simple grand-round presentation of the data and recommended guidelines to clinicians significantly increased the proportion of patients receiving recommended thromboprophylaxis but did not increase the overall proportion of patients receiving it. We therefore conclude that a single presentation of guidelines is not enough to achieve the desired levels. Such presentations may only serve to make DVT (deep venous thromboembolism) aware clinicians prescribe prophylaxis more accurately.

scholarly journals A quality improvement project to improve the number of section 136 GP discharge summaries from the place of safety

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S192-S192
Author(s):  
Jemma Hazan ◽  
Mikail Ozer ◽  
Yathooshan Ramesh ◽  
Richard Westmoreland
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Discharge Summary ◽  
Quality Improvement Project ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Progress Notes ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
Discharge Letter ◽  
Discharge Summaries

AimsA Quality Improvement project with the aim to increase the number of patients discharged with a GP discharge summary from the Chase Farm Place of Safety over a 12 month time period by 50%.BackgroundAn initial audit was conducted at Chase Farm Place of Safety (POS) to see if patients held under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act (S136) and then discharged home had a GP discharge letter completed and sent. The audit revealed that 0.02% of patients who were under S136 and discharged home did have a discharge letter sent to the GP.As a result of the initial audit, key stakeholders were contacted, and involved in the intervention design and implementation. The intervention was introduced and all doctors working in the trust were emailed the new protocolMethodWe implemented the following intervention:If a patient was registered at a GP Practice then the nursing staff in the POS copied the entry of the discharging doctor from the electronic progress notes and pasted this in to the S136 discharge template on the electronic progress notes and this was emailed to the GP.We informed Doctors to be aware that their entry would go out to the GP and should contain the following: Impression, Outcome/Plan, Specific Risk /Safeguarding concerns and specific management plans.ResultIn the initial audit the notes of all patients discharged from the POS under S136 were reviewed over a 3 month period between November and January 2018. We found that 2 out of 89 patients (0.02%) had a completed GP summary which was emailed to the GP Practice.After the intervention was introduced the notes were audited between July and September 2019. We found 33 out of 60 patients (55%) had a completed GP summary which was emailed to the GP Practice.ConclusionThere was an improvement of 54.8% in the number of discharge summaries. Further consideration needs to be given to improving this percentage and understanding what remaining barriers there are.

Improving Coded Data Entry by an Electronic Patient Record System

1996 ◽  
Vol 35 (02) ◽  
pp. 108-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Puerner ◽  
H. Soltanian ◽  
J. H. Hohnloser
Keyword(s):  
Phase I ◽  
Electronic Patient Record ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Discharge Summary ◽  
Patient Record ◽  
Phase Iii ◽  
Electronic Patient Record System ◽  
Record System ◽  
Data Encoding ◽  
Discharge Summaries

AbstractData are presented on the use of a browsing and encoding utility to improve coded data entry for an electronic patient record system. Traditional and computerized discharge summaries were compared: during three phases of coding ICD-9 diagnoses phase I, no coding; phase II, manual coding, and phase III, computerized semiautomatic coding. Our data indicate that (1) only 50% of all diagnoses in a discharge summary are encoded manually; (2) using a computerized browsing and encoding utility this percentage may increase by 64%; (3) when forced to encode manually, users may “shift” as much as 84% of relevant diagnoses from the appropriate coding section to other sections thereby “bypassing” the need to encode, this was reduced by up to 41 % with the computerized approach, and (4) computerized encoding can improve completeness of data encoding, from 46 to 100%. We conclude that the use of a computerized browsing and encoding tool can increase data quality and the percentage of documented data. Mechanisms bypassing the need to code can be avoided.

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