Hospital sends e-notes for patient discharge

University Hospital of North Staffordshire is using an electronic template to gather clinical information during a patient's hospital stay, then sending the discharge notes electronically to GPs across Stoke on Trent and North Staffordshire PCTs. The system, which was developed with clinical correspondence specialists Medisec Software, ensures that GPs receive the information overnight. It also provides an audit trail from letter generation to delivery to show exactly how long it is taking to deliver discharge updates to GPs. It enables the hospital to compare how long individual consultants take to generate and issue clinical correspondence. The discharge data set uses the Royal College of Physicians standard for quality and includes all the relevant clinical details from discharge medication and test results, to allergies, body mass index, physical ability and cognitive function. Rebecca Gallimore, deputy head of ICT at University Hospital, said: "The new system will really help us to communicate with GPs and can only improve patient care."