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Cited by 29Hospital Admissions and OutcomesHealthcare Systems and TechnologyClinical practice guidelines implementation

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 36 of the 36 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Improving best practice for patients receiving hospital discharge letters: a realist review protocol

Open access
Weetman, Katharine, Wong, Geoffrey, Scott, Emma, Schnurr, Stephanie, Dale, Jeremy·2017·BMJ Open
DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018353PMC PMC5695342
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Abstract

Introduction: Discharge documents are important for transferring information from hospitals to the referring clinician; in the UK and many countries, this is often the patient’s general practitioner or family physician. However, patients may or may not receive their discharge letters, and whether patients should routinely receive discharge letters remains unclear. Methods and analysis: The review will consolidate evidence on patients receiving discharge letters through the theory-driven approach of a realist review. The review will be conducted systematically and seek to explain how, why, for whom and in what contexts does this practice ‘work’. The review will specifically explore whether there are benefits of this practice and if so what are the important contexts for triggering the mechanisms associated with these outcome benefits. Negative effects will also be considered. Several steps will occur: devising initial rough programme theory, searching the evidence, selecting relevant documents, extracting data, synthesising and finally programme theory refinement. As the process is viewed as iterative, this cycle of steps may be repeated as many times as is necessary to reach theoretical saturation and may not be linear. The initial programme theory will be tested and refined throughout the review process and by stakeholder involvement of National Health Service (NHS) policy makers, practitioners and service users. Ethics and dissemination: Formal ethical review is not required. The resulting programme theory is anticipated to explain how the intervention of patients receiving written discharge communication may work in practice, for whom and in what contexts; this will inform best practice of patients receiving discharge communication. The review findings will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal and presentations and discussions with relevant organisations and stakeholders. While the review will be from the perspective of the UK NHS, its findings should be relevant to other healthcare systems. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42017069863.

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Crossref · 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018353

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  • Data from each document were systematically examined by the research team to confirm, refute, or refine the theory using previously reported strategies such as juxtaposition, reconciliation, adjudication, and consolidation.

    “Data from each document were systematically examined by the research team to confirm, refute, or refine the theory using previously reported strategies such as juxtaposition, reconciliation, adjudication, and consolidation [37, 38].”

    From Do hospital-to-home transitions work for older adults with multiple long-term conditions including dementia? A realist review (2025) · cites this paper as [38]

    Step 5 (data synthesis) says relevant data from each document will be systematically considered to test and refine the programme theory using juxtaposition, reconciliation, adjudication, and consolidation. But this is a protocol describing planned work; it does not establish that the research team already examined the documents as the citing sentence states. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Citations

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Thornber M . A simple and effective communication skill. BMJ 2010;337 http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/03/simple-and-effective-communication-skill

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Metadata

Authors
Weetman, K., Wong, G., Scott, E., Schnurr, S., & Dale, J.
Affiliations
  • University of Warwick (GB)
  • Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Corresponding author
Weetman, Katharine
ORCID
Venue
BMJ Open
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2017-11
Volume
7
Issue
11
Pages
e018353
ISSN
2044-6055 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018353
PMC
PMC5695342
OpenAlex
W4233951726
Cited by
29
References
36
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 1
FWCI
3.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • BMJ Open (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (acceptedVersion, public-domain)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (acceptedVersion)
  • Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Economic and Social Research Council
  • Clinical Commissioning Groups of South Warwickshire and Coventry & Rugby
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Leadership and Management › Hospital Admissions and Outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Healthcare Systems and Technology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Clinical practice guidelines implementation
Keywords
hospital discharge letters, discharge communication, patient information, general practitioners, continuity of care, program theory, realist review, best practices
MeSH terms
Communication, Humans, Patient Discharge, Research Design, Review Literature as Topic, Correspondence as Topic

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