This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Sackley, C. M Articles by Pound, K. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sackley, C. M Articles by Pound, K. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Stroke patients entering nursing home care: a content analysis of discharge letters

Trent Institute for Health Services Research, Medical School, University of Nottingham, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK

Kate Pound

Division of Stroke Medicine, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham, UK

Objective: To examine the information contained in medical and nursing staff hospital discharge letters for stroke patients entering nursing home care.

Design: A retrospective content analysis comparing case notes with discharge letters.

Setting: Nottingham (UK) hospitals.

Subjects: Thirty-eight stroke patients with a Barthel Activities of Daily Living Index score of less than 11/20 at three months post stroke who were discharged into a nursing home.

Method: Patients' medical case notes and medical and nursing discharge letters were subjected to the same structured content analysis. The three key areas were: self-care ability (i.e. washing, dressing), nursing needs (i.e. diet, continence) and risk assessment (i.e. falls, pressure sores).

Results: Discharge letters were least likely to provide information on risk assessments, for example only 14 (37%) documented the risk of pressure sores and 7 (18%) falls. Thirty discharge letters (79%) had information relating to self-care ability and nursing care, although a blanket term ‘needs all care’ was used to describe patient ability in 20 (66%) of these.

Conclusion: The results demonstrate that the completeness and accuracy of information is often poor, doing little to enhance the continuity of care for patients who are transferred from hospital to nursing homes.

Clinical Rehabilitation, Vol. 16, No. 7, 736-740 (2002)
DOI: 10.1191/0269215502cr535oa


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G Wynn and D Hindley Randomised trial comparing prototype structures for clinical letters Arch. Dis. Child., December 1, 2004; 89(12): 1178 - 1178. [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. Leeds, J. Meara, and P. Hobson The impact of discharge to a care home on longer term stroke outcomes Clinical Rehabilitation, August 1, 2004; 18(8): 924 - 928. [Abstract] [PDF]