Improving care for patients in the outlying wards: Lessons from patients' care experience.

IMPORTANCE: Overcrowding in hospitals and lack of capacity in general medical wards can result in a medical patient being transferred to other specialty wards often referred as 'outlying' or 'boarding' wards. OBJECTIVES: We explored the experiences of our outlying patients to identify local factors that affect their care experience and inform interventions that could improve their care deliveries and outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Qualitative interviews using semi-structured questions were conducted in 21 medical patients from a mixture of specialty wards in a large tertiary NHS hospital. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Perceptions of the factors contributing to the experience of being a patient on a boarding ward, and potential solutions. RESULTS: Almost all participants reported experiences of good care in an outlying ward. Positive comments highlighted good nursing care, restful environment and a strong focus on patient-centred care. However, none of the participants could identify the team or consultant responsible for their care and this was linked to multiple doctors being involved in the patient's care. Participants also perceived that the frequency of review was reduced and occurred much later in the day than that experienced in the medical ward. Most felt indifferent about the care ownership, timing and frequency of review but in some cases, this led to confusion and the perception of poor progress. Further, participants felt that they had to actively seek information relating to clinical progress. Negative experience of discharge planning was also reported. The associated themes included conflicting information and delays in social care provision. This led to anxiety, frustration and the perception of being a barrier to patient flow. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Patient experience of the outlying ward is positive, and this can provide a foundation for improvement. Our findings suggest that better care processes and improved communication are needed to promote equity and quality of care. However, this should be complemented with efforts to overcome wider challenges that affect the entire continuum of flow within the healthcare system.

Effective acute care handover to GP: optimising the structure to improve discharge documentation.

Time and resource constraints have often led to the use of assessment records as discharge communications from acute and emergency departments. However, whether this addresses the primary care needs has not been demonstrated. This study examined the optimal structure that can impart key discharge information effectively using feedback from general practitioners (GP). We implemented an electronic assessment template that focused on the most relevant headings. Prespecified process measures were examined and qualitative thematic analysis of free-text comments from GP surveys were conducted to optimise the document. Our findings suggest that the structure of a discharge summary can influence the quality of information, users' compliance and readers' perceptions of the length of the letter.