This appeared last week.
Discharge summaries riddled with 'alarming' abbreviations, study reveals
On average the letters contain 17 abbreviations, most of which mean different things to different doctors, shows Australian research
25th October 2021
For any GP who has puzzled over a hospital discharge summary, Aussie findings reveal they contain dozens of abbreviations that can be interpreted in an “alarming” number of ways.
On average, a patient discharge summary has 17 different abbreviations, with one notable example containing 86 short forms, according to Queensland researchers.
Not only were hospital summaries riddled with abbreviations, but they meant different things to the more than 300 doctors in the study.
While most doctors agreed that Hb meant ‘haemoglobin’ and IV meant ‘intravenous’, GPs and junior doctors provided 32 different versions of what the letters LC might mean.
And in almost one in five cases (18%), GPs had no clue what its author was trying to convey.
“Our results indicate poor understanding of abbreviations used in discharge summaries among GPs,” the authors wrote.
“However, there is also poor understanding of the same abbreviations by junior doctors, which is concerning given that junior doctors are most likely to be responsible for completing discharge summaries.”
The study was carried out by Brisbane GP registrar Dr Anna Coghlan and anaesthetic registrar Dr Sophie Turner.
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“No abbreviations were interpreted the same by all respondents, which is particularly alarming given that 10 of the abbreviations tested were selected for their high frequency use in medical documentation."
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More information: Intern Med J 2021; 11 Oct.
More here:
https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/discharge-summaries-riddled-alarming-abbreviations-study-reveals
So many of the Discharge Summaries uploaded to the #myHR are riddled with abbreviations that many other doctors seem not to understand. Heavens know what the patients and other staff make of the summaries!
Hard not to think this rather diminishes the value of such entries that the ADHA claims it now holds 12 million of!
It is clear that just piling up gazillions of documents does not in any way talk to the quality and utility of what is held!
It really is time we get some true clinical impact assessment of just what the #myHR is actually achieving!
David.
2 comments:
The consequences of claiming interoperability when you don’t know what you are talking about. This is not a surprise finding, it has been called out since the beginning
It's even worse than the fax. A fax goes point to point, once. A discharge summary in MyHR will live on forever causing potential long term damage and inefficiencies when practitioners have to work out what they say and if it is important. It's not only garbage in garbage out it's garbage in amplified garbage out.
One day someone may well sue ADHA/ the government. But I bet they are well protected, legally. But not morally or ethically.
I wonder if the average worker at ADHA knows just what damage they could be helping to cause.
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