Medical Staff

Communication between hospitalist and primary care physician suboptimal

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, September 19, 2007

With the increase in the number of hospitalists, the transfer of patient information to primary care physicians (PCPs) is critical to ensuring continuity of care for patients.
But a recent study published by The Journal of Hospital Medicine says that the transfer is not always smooth.
The study found that direct physician communication at discharge was uncommon and discharge summaries were usually not available at the patient's first follow-up visit with the PCP post-hospitalization.
This meta-analysis included observational studies that evaluated deficits in information transfer at discharge and controlled trials that studied interventions to improve this process. The article also says that simple interventions such as use of computer-generated discharge summaries and standardized formats for dictation can improve the timeliness and completeness of information transfer from hospitalist to PCP.

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