"Why Is This Patient Being Sent Here?": Communication from Urgent Care to the Emergency Department.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite patients' increasing use of urgent care centers (UCC), little is known about how urgent care clinicians communicate with the emergency department (ED).

Objectives

To assess ED clinicians' perceptions of the quality and consistency of communication when patients are referred from UCCs to EDs.

Methods

Emergency medicine department chairs distributed a brief, electronic survey to a statewide sample of ED clinicians via e-mail. The survey included multiple-choice and free-text questions focused on types of communication desired and received from UCCs, types of test results available on transfer, and suggestions for improvement.

Results

Of 199 ED clinicians, 102 (51.3%) responded. More than four out of five respondents "somewhat" or "strongly agre

SUBMITTER: Gardner R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5718340 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature