Biomaterial Database

Referral letters: are form letters better? 1997

S Jenkins, and B Arroll, and S Hawken, and R Nicholson

Department of General Practice, School of Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

An essential mode of contact between general practitioners (GPs) and hospital staff is the referral letter. This must be clear and concise with sufficient information to aid the GP, the consultant and the patient. In order to ensure this, a proposal was made for the use of a structured or standardized referral letter: a form letter. This report shows that form letters were shorter than typed letters. Form letters were also proven to contain more information than nonform letters.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008499	Medical Records	Recording of pertinent information concerning patient's illness or illnesses.	Health Diaries,Medical Transcription,Records, Medical,Transcription, Medical,Diaries, Health,Diary, Health,Health Diary,Medical Record,Medical Transcriptions,Record, Medical,Transcriptions, Medical
D008505	Medical Staff, Hospital	Professional medical personnel approved to provide care to patients in a hospital.	Attending Physicians, Hospital,Hospital Medical Staff,Physicians, Junior,Registrars, Hospital,Attending Physician, Hospital,Hospital Attending Physician,Hospital Attending Physicians,Hospital Medical Staffs,Medical Staffs, Hospital,Hospital Registrar,Hospital Registrars,Junior Physician,Junior Physicians,Physician, Junior,Registrar, Hospital,Staff, Hospital Medical,Staffs, Hospital Medical
D012017	Referral and Consultation	The practice of sending a patient to another program or practitioner for services or advice which the referring source is not prepared to provide.	Consultation,Gatekeepers, Health Service,Hospital Referral,Second Opinion,Consultation and Referral,Health Service Gatekeepers,Hospital Referrals,Referral,Referral, Hospital,Referrals, Hospital,Consultations,Gatekeeper, Health Service,Health Service Gatekeeper,Opinion, Second,Opinions, Second,Referrals,Second Opinions
D005194	Family Practice	A medical specialty concerned with the provision of continuing, comprehensive primary health care for the entire family.	Family Practices,Practice, Family,Practices, Family
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012189	Retrospective Studies	Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.	Retrospective Study,Studies, Retrospective,Study, Retrospective
D015709	Correspondence as Topic	Works on written communication between persons or between institutions or organizations.	Letters as Topic,Letters as Topics