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Quality of referrals to old age psychiatry following introduction of the single assessment process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Kathleen Ferriter ,
Partha Gangopadhyay ,
Ramin Nilforooshan ,
Mark Ardern  and
James Warner
Kathleen Ferriter
Affiliation:
Central North West London Mental Health Trust
Partha Gangopadhyay
Affiliation:
Central North West London Mental Health Trust
Ramin Nilforooshan
Affiliation:
Central North West London Mental Health Trust
Mark Ardern
Affiliation:
Central North West London Mental Health Trust
James Warner
Affiliation:
Claybrook Centre, Charing Cross Campus, Imperial College, St Dunstan's Road, London W6 8RP, email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Aims and Method

We sought to identify changes in the quality of information in referrals to an old age psychiatry service before and after the introduction of the single assessment process. Referrals were compared in terms of length, legibility, information and clinical utility.

Results

Compared with letters before the introduction of the single assessment process, referrals made on the new forms took longer to read (mean 96 v. 124 s, P=0.001), had more illegible sections (P=0.011), contained less information (P=0.026) and were judged to be less clinically useful (P=0.001).

Clinical Implications

The introduction of the single assessment process has impaired clinical communication between general practitioners and psychiatrists, and might be prejudicial to patient care.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 30 , Issue 12 , December 2006 , pp. 452 - 453
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2006

References

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Swift, C. G. (2002) The NHS English National Service Framework for Older People: opportunities and risks. Clinical Medicine, 2, 139–143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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