Working on Compilation of Model Written Requests From Care Managers to Physicians / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

　　The number of geriatric care managers is on the rise. This tendency has given rise to concerns in some quarters over the widening communication gap between care managers and medical professionals. The problem is that already many care managers are taking too much time writing requests to physicians because they do not know how to write them. The situation is such that in concert with care managers we had a workshop to improve in writing to physicians on a case-by-case basis. Cases were presumed by participating care managers. For examples: cases where instructions from doctors concerning home care are needed as bed-ridden patients had serious bedsores;where hard-to-manage behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia developed in patients have to be reported and at the same time thedoctors’ advice is needed as to whether the patients should be referred to clinics specialized in Alzheimer’s disease; and where it becomes necessary to ask permission from doctors for reduction in the number of times of internal use of prescription medicines by reason of forgetfulness on the part of the patients. With these and other hypothetical cases included, a sort of manual was worked out by the first author of this paper in cooperation with two nurses. We hope that this work will help care managers build up their writing skill and facilitate communication between care managers and physicians.