Community nurses and the electronic discharge summary

Tindale, Julie

Julie Tindale describes how giving healthcare staff instant access to patients' records has a beneficial effect on the quality of care delivery

Correspondence

Julie Tindale was national clinical lead nursing and midwifery, Clinical Division, Department of Health Informatics Directorate at the time of writing, she is now a member of the National Nursing Informatics Strategic Taskforce and clinical midwife manager for information and communications, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust

Date of acceptance

March 15 2012

Peer review

This article has been subject to double-blind review and has been checked using antiplagiarism software

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Conflict of interest

None declared

Primary Health Care 22(7):p 25-27, September 2012.

Abstract

Discharge preparation from secondary care can be stressful for patients and their families. The wait while take-home medications are ordered, and arrangements for follow-up appointments and treatment can be frustratingly long. Community nurses and teams have to navigate many methods of information delivery and provide quality care. Electronic 24-hour discharge summaries have the potential to improve patients' experiences of discharge and support their continued care.