Elektronisk meldingsutveksling ved utskriving av pasienter fra sykehus til kommune
Sammanfattning
Background: Discharge from hospital to community care services represents a particularly
vulnerable situation for patients. Electronic messaging, with the use of «PLO»-messages, has been
introduced to ensure effective and safe information exchange in patient transitions between hospitals
and community care services. As of today, little is known about the nurses’ experiences with the use
of «PLO»-messages during discharge.
Objective: To explore nurses’ experiences with «PLO»-messages that support patient transitions from
hospital to community care
services.
Material and methods: A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews with 41 employees at a
university hospital and three community care services.
Results: «PLO»-messages facilitated easy access to shared information during discharge planning
as well as in the actual patient discharge. However, the use of supplementary communication
channels was necessary to ensure informational continuity. The major reasons were unpredictable
discharge dates, inconsistency in respective medication lists in community care service and
hospital, lacking content in the messages’ free text fields and cultural differences in nursing practice.
Conclusion: Whereas «PLO»-messages serve as a beneficial communication tool, they have to be
supplemented with oral communication and meetings to ensure informational continuity in the
discharge planning and discharge. Further efforts should be directed towards improving the content
of the free text fields of the messages.