This frustrated article appeared last week:
GP fights back over acronyms in specialists' letters
Dr George Quittner says he's sick of scratching his head over non-GP specialist letters and is calling for clarity
23rd November 2021
A Sydney GP has become so frustrated by the number of indecipherable acronyms in other specialists' letters that he now insists that an explanation key be included in reports.
Dr George Quittner has started including a paragraph in his referral letters asking that all return missives contain an attached explanation of any abbreviations used.
His comments come in response to a 6minutes report on a Queensland study that found the average patient discharge summary had 17 different abbreviations.
Dr Quittner said he was often left scratching his head over acronym-laden letters, trying to decipher what tests were done or what syndrome his patient has.
This not only led to poorer clinical care for his patients but verged on “unprofessional” behaviour, he said.
“It's absolutely getting worse,” Dr Quittner told 6minutes.
“Medicine and life in general is getting more complicated. There are more and more strange, interesting machines and tests that are done as well as syndromes.
“They all have great big, long Latin names, so you can't blame people for shortening them.
“But for the GP reading it, who may not be familiar with that particular test one, it’s hard.
“That behaviour is now becoming even unprofessional, dare I say it.”
About a year ago Dr Quittner started including a request to “please explain” all abbreviations.
But most specialists ignored it, including the cardiologist who reported back using 20 short forms.
Dr Quittner said he had now upped the ante and included an entire paragraph in his letter using capital letters and printed in blue saying: "Please explain all acronyms used in your reports."
More here:
https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/gp-fights-back-over-acronyms-specialists-letters
Looking at the objects of most frustration it seems to be when a super specialist uses acronyms and abbreviations unique to that subspeciality and does not provide a clear take-away message of just what the results of the consultation and what the GP is to do in the further care of the patient.
By all means can he specialist include the detailed and abbreviated outcome but there needs to be a clear translation for the GP!
Otherwise the #myHR will be partially filled with useless and unactioned gibberish.
Education for the specialists clearly makes sense as it is in their interest – and in the patient’s interest – that their key messages arrive intact back to the GP and that the GPs are keen to use their services again.
David.
7 comments:
Anonymous said...
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They will always be part of health care communications. You simply have to know them. You cannot and should not expect them to be written out in longhand. Know them, get used to them and use them correctly is simply good practice.
November 18, 2021 11:46 AM
As last time anon is a pompous fool yet again!
David
So you don't use abbreviations?
"So you don't use abbreviations?"
Sounds like someone desperate to defend their opinion rather than recognise what the problem really is - there are always two ends to a communication: the sender and he receiver.
You should not make things easier for one end by making it harder at the other. Both contribute to the communication process.
In the case of a discharge summary there will probably be multiple recipients, including the patient who won't need to understand the whole thing but certainly needs to understand part of it.
@11:54 AM This sounds like an exercise in stupidity. It seems quite paradoxical that clinicians, nursing staff and other health professionals routinely use abbreviations all the time in hospital when recording health data. Yet, unless I'm mistaken, you seem to want clinicians to completely change their modus operandi, apropos clinical recording, and cease using 'abbreviations' outside the hospital. If so, it's a big ask and quite impracticable.
@3:28 PM the use of a specific vocabulary in a particular specialised institution is one thing. To expect that same vocabulary to be in use in all other environments is lazy, naive, arrogant or self centered in the extreme. Possibly all 4.
I'm getting the impression you are the sort of healthcare professional who knows they are always right and that mistakes are always someone else's fault.
It's not an 'expectation', it's purely and simply a fact of life. Get used to it.
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