Communication in healthcare : a narrative review of the literature and practical recommendations
| Autor: | Eric Mortier, Sophie Degroote, Walter Buylaert, Peter Vermeir, Dominique Vandijck, Dirk Vogelaers, S. Van Daele, Giorgio Hallaert, Renaat Peleman, R. Verhaeghe |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
Pediatrics
medicine.medical_specialty review Review Article SPECIALISTS inefficiencies Professional Competence CANCER CARE Health care Hospital discharge medicine Medicine and Health Sciences Humans QUALITY Interdisciplinary communication Review Articles DISCHARGE SUMMARIES PRIMARY/SECONDARY INTERFACE HOSPITAL DISCHARGE business.industry communication Communication healthcare General Medicine Continuity of Patient Care GENERAL-PRACTITIONERS WRITTEN COMMUNICATION Patient Satisfaction Family medicine recommendations Narrative review Interdisciplinary Communication Patient Safety PATIENT SAFETY business Delivery of Health Care REFERRAL LETTERS |
| Zdroj: | INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PRACTICE International Journal of Clinical Practice |
| ISSN: | 1368-5031 |
| Popis: | Objectives: Effective and efficient communication is crucial in healthcare. Written communication remains the most prevalent form of communication between specialized and primary care. We aimed at reviewing the literature on the quality of written communication, the impact of communication inefficiencies and recommendations to improve written communication in healthcare. Design: Narrative literature review. Methods: A search was carried out on the databases PubMed, Web of Science and The Cochrane Library by means of the (MeSH)terms ‘communication’, ‘primary health care’, ‘correspondence’, ‘patient safety’, ‘patient handoff’ and ‘continuity of patient care’. Reviewers screened 4609 records and 462 full texts were checked according following inclusion criteria: 1) pubication between January 1985 and March 2014 2) availability as full text in English 3) categorization as original research, reviews, meta -analyses or letters to the editor. Results: A total of 69 articles were included in this review. It was found that poor communication can lead to various negative outcomes: discontinuity of care, compromise of patient safety, patient dissatisfaction and inefficient use of valuable resources, both in unnecessary investigations and physician worktime as well as economic consequences. Conclusion: There is room for improvement of both content and timeliness of written communication. The delineation of ownership of the communication process should be clear. Peer review, process indicators and follow up tools are required to measure the impact of quality improvement initiatives. Communication between caregivers should feature more prominently in graduate and postgraduate training, in order to become engraved as an essential skill and quality characteristic of each caregiver. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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