Writing to patients: 'putting the patient in the picture'

O'Reilly, Máire; Cahill, Mary R.; Perry, Ivan J.

Writing to patients: 'putting the patient in the picture'

dc.contributor.author	O'Reilly, Máire
dc.contributor.author	Cahill, Mary R.
dc.contributor.author	Perry, Ivan J.
dc.contributor.funder	Health Research Board	en
dc.date.accessioned	2009-10-06T08:50:37Z
dc.date.available	2009-10-06T08:50:37Z
dc.date.copyright	2005
dc.date.issued	2005-02
dc.description.abstract	We have explored consultant, general practitioner and patient attitudes towards the proposal that following an outpatient consultation, consultants should consider communicating directly with patients in the form of a summary letter, with a copy to the referring general practitioner or other professionals as appropriate. We conducted in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of 20 consultants, 16 patients and 12 general practitioners. The consultants and general practitioners were both involved in the care of participating patients. Patients highlighted the likely value of summary letters including, increased knowledge, improvement recall of the clinical encounter, and reassurance. Clinicians were concerned that patients would not understand letters from consultants. Additional concerns included the impact of letter on consultant-general practitioner relationship and medico-legal issues. These findings reflect fundamental differences in expectations about the nature and quality of communications between doctors and their patients.	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Published Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	O'Reilly, M., Cahill, M., Perry, I.J., 2005. Writing to patients: 'putting the patient in the picture'. Irish Medical Journal, 98(2), pp.58-60.	en
dc.identifier.endpage	60	en
dc.identifier.issn	0332-3102
dc.identifier.issued	2	en
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Irish Medical Journal	en
dc.identifier.startpage	58	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/92
dc.identifier.volume	98	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Irish Medical Organization	en
dc.relation.uri	http://www.imj.ie//Issue_detail.aspx?issueid=+&pid=526&type=Papers	en
dc.rights	©Irish Medical Journal 2005	en
dc.subject	Doctor-patient relationship	en
dc.subject.lcsh	Physician and patient--Ireland	en
dc.subject.lcsh	Communication in medicine--Ireland	en
dc.subject.lcsh	Medical consultation	en
dc.title	Writing to patients: 'putting the patient in the picture'	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en