A study recently published in the Medical Journal of Australia revealed that abbreviations in hospital discharge letters are not well understood by the receiving GPs. General practitioner understanding of abbreviations used in hospital discharge letters describes an audit which was made of abbreviations used at Nepean Hospital in Sydney in December 2012. Twenty common and clinically important abbreviations were identified and sent in a questionnaire to 240 GPs from the local area. The abbreviations were used in context, but still no individual abbreviation was correctly interpreted by all GPs. Six of the abbreviations were misinterpreted by over 25% of the GPs.
The authors of the study concluded that these results have potential to adversely affect patient care in the transition from hospital to community care.
Mark Chemali, Emily J Hibbert, Adrian Sheen, Mark Chemali, Emily J Hibbert and Adrian Sheen Med J Aust 2015; 203 (3): 147. doi: 10.5694/mja15.00224
GP understanding of hospital discharge abbreviations
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