GP-Hospital Teamwork Critical to Patient Care
Patients deserve to have their GPs remain an integral part of their healthcare team, even when they're in hospital, to ensure they receive the best possible health care, AMA President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, said today.
Keeping general practitioners informed of their patients' care in hospital enables more effective integrated health care for patients.
"Family doctors are the central coordinators of health care for Australian patients, so it makes sense to keep them involved when their patients go to and from hospital," Dr Haikerwal said.
"It's valuable to discuss a patient's pre-admission state and to plan for their discharge with their GP.
"Continuity of care is disrupted if people are admitted to hospital and GPs are not kept informed of their patients' progress.
"When patients are discharged from hospitals without their GPs' knowledge, or their GP is not given any information about the care they've received, it breaks the important chain of continuity of care from their family doctor at a time when they need it most.
"There is a better way. We've got to get hospitals and GPs working together to ensure each patient receives the best care possible."
Keeping the health care delivered by GPs and hospitals well coordinated is vital to patient health, Dr Haikerwal said at the Royal Hobart Hospital, as he wrapped up Family Doctor Week - an initiative of the AMA highlighting the ways in which GPs keep Australia healthy.
"When this doesn't happen it creates problems such as doubling up on tests, preventable drug reactions and interactions or medication errors," Dr Haikerwal said.
"Unclear diagnoses and plans for further management cause upset and undue anxiety. We've got to work together, be clear and remember it's all about helping the patient.
"It's obvious that integrating the work done by GPs and hospitals will lead to better health care and patient satisfaction, as well as better use of existing health services and economic benefits."
The AMA's Council of General Practice has called for:
- Hospitals to be compelled to provide discharge summaries to each patient's GP as a condition of that patient's discharge;
- Hospitals' accreditation to require the provision of timely, detailed and legible discharge summaries to GPs for every patient;
- GPs to be involved in the management of every hospital in Australia, and;
- A new Australian Standard outlining the minimum information to be shared between hospitals and GPs on a patient's admission and discharge.
The council's resolutions are to be considered by the AMA's Federal Council next month.
Family Doctor Week 2006 is supported by American Express.