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Computer-generated correspondence for patients attending an open-access chest pain clinic
- Source :
- Europe PubMed Central
- Publication Year :
- 1998
-
Abstract
- To determine whether general practitioners (GPs) prefer structured computer-generated or standard dictated outpatient clinic letters.Questionnaire survey of all GPs referring patients to an open-access chest pain clinic at a district general hospital in London. The GPs were asked to compare three twinned examples of structured computer-generated and unstructured dictated letters.Of 93 respondents (response rate 77.5%), 75 (80.6%) preferred the computer-generated letter and 16 (17.2%) preferred the dictated letter (p0.0005). The preferred features of the computer-generated letter were its clear presentation, subheadings, and concise information. The computer-generated letter scored significantly higher than the dictated letter: for clarity, mean 8.2 vs 6.5 (p0.0005); content, mean 8.5 vs 6.9 (p0.0005); and readability, mean 8.2 vs 6.8 (p0.0005). The GPs in the survey considered a mean delay of 3.4 days to be acceptable for receiving the letter from the chest pain clinic.GPs prefer structured computer-generated letters to unstructured dictated letters for patients referred to an open-access chest pain clinic. Computer-generated correspondence allows rapid feedback of information to the referring GP, one of the key requirements of open-access clinics.
Details
- ISSN :
- 00358819
- Volume :
- 32
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London
- Accession number :
- edsair.pmid.dedup....b7df2ae3df28f93c0932e998ea259e01