Discharge Summaries Again
Tuesday September 2, 2014
Many GPs are continuing to be frustrated by not receiving discharge summaries following in-patient admissions. We have identified two issues at present:
- Doctors are completing discharge summaries in anticipation of discharge but these are not being sent once the discharge has occurred.
- Some discharges are being sent via Healthlink but no receipt comes back.
In both these examples the discharge summaries will be available on CHiP for GPs but as has been acknowledged previously, this relies on the GP finding out somehow that the patient has had an inpatient episode, having access to CHiP and having the time to look.
I will keep you updated regarding developments. Discharge summaries can be chased by emailing noeds@bopdhb.govt.nz When sending requests please remember to be polite - I know it is frustrating to chase up discharge summaries but the admin person (her name is Gail) who processes the emails has no direct control over the system and is simply trying to help.
