Providing letters to patients

Autor: N Hallowell, M D Lewars, N. Coni, J A Eaden, B Ward, J F Mayberry
Rok vydání: 1998
Předmět:
Zdroj: BMJ. 316:1830-1830
ISSN: 1468-5833
0959-8138
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.316.7147.1830b
Popis: Editor—Essex raises some interesting points about the value of giving patients a written summary of their consultation.1 The practice of sending patients a letter summarising their consultation is very common in genetic counselling. A colleague and I have completed a qualitative interview study exploring patients’ attitudes about and their use of written summaries of their genetic consultations for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.2 Like Essex, we found that patients responded very positively to these letters. Altogether 37 (93%) out of 40 patients in the sample said that the summary letter aided their understanding or recall of information that had been given in the clinic, or both. The written summary was also perceived as valuable because it could be shown to other clinicians to support the patient’s case for gaining access to breast or ovarian screening programmes, it reassured patients that they were taking appropriate action, and it contained information about other relatives’ risks. In addition, the written summary was also perceived as a useful tool for disseminating genetic information to other family members; 34 (85%) out of 40 patients said they had used, or intended to use, the written summary of their counselling session to facilitate the communication of genetic information to other biological relatives. On the basis of our findings we suggest that genetic counsellors send patients a letter summarising their consultations as this may result not only in an increase in the patient’s understanding, but may prevent the miscommunication of genetic information within the family. However, we feel that clinicians should be aware that providing patients with a written summary of their consultation may also have negative consequences. It may generate an inappropriate demand for referrals to genetic clinics from family members at low risk, and, more importantly, reading a letter written to the patient may cause needless anxiety among low risk family members.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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