The RCP HIU is conducting a consultation to support the development of new standards for digital emergency department (ED) discharge summaries.
NHS Digital has commissioned the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB), in partnership with the RCP, to identify the standards required for digital ED discharge summaries.
Structured standards are imperative to enabling coded information from ED discharge summaries to be sent to and re-used in GP practice systems without human transcription or re-entering details into a computer.
Once created and imbedded these standards will:
- support improvement to patient safety
- increase timeliness of care
- reduce the risk of transcription errors
- improve continuity of care by enabling information to follow the individual on their care and treatment journey.
Complementing the recent Emergency Care Data Set project, this new initiative has already been working to develop a draft information set in consultation with clinicians, patients and health informaticians.
The project, which aims to provide a consistent and improved level of information from emergency departments, should mean healthcare professionals only need to record information in the patient record once. This will ultimately mean that accurate data can be extracted into both a discharge summary and an Emergency Care Data Set.
To ensure that any new standards are fit for purpose, functional and straightforward to use, a consultation is being held; inviting patients, clinicians, healthcare professionals and suppliers to share their thoughts and experience.
Submit your feedback about what information should be included in an ED discharge summary by completing this survey, which should take no longer than 15 minutes, before 12 noon, 31 October 2016.
For more information contact the HIU: informatics@rcplondon.ac.uk.
