<p>An Asthma Specialist’s Consult Letter: What Do Parents Think About Receiving a Copy?</p>

Abstract

Written summaries about visits with general practitioners' have influenced increased patient knowledge, satisfaction, recollection, and compliance, and strengthened the doctor-patient relationship. All previous studies about this communication pre-dated the electronic medical record (EMR) era, and none examined views from parents of children with asthma. We explored parents' perceptions about receiving a hard copy summary Letter immediately following the visit, with the pediatric asthma specialist about findings and the care plan for their child. Methods: A Parent Advisory Council helped inform this pilot study, an observational crosssectional electronic survey. Each Letter included a comprehensive summary of the child's visit with the specialist. Results: Previous findings from patients about the benefits of receiving this Letter were strongly supported by data from 51 participants. Interestingly, more than 54% of respondents preferred receiving a hard copy Letter over an electronic copy, and 98% wanted other clinicians to adopt this practice. Conclusion: Parents of children with asthma value and want timely written information of this nature from other clinicians. Practice Implications: These results can influence further asthma research to promote a change in the perceptions of clinicians, parents, and patients about timely access to health information in the EMR era.

In Anticipation of Sharing Pediatric Inpatient Notes: Focus Group Study With Stakeholders

“…Partridge [ 15 ] reported that only 6.8% (9/133) of parents were “seriously upset” by what they read in their copied letters, either because they felt that their parenting was being criticized or because they disagreed with the content. Liapi et al [ 19 ] found only one complaint about content: out of 200 parents, 2 “felt that the letter did not accurately describe what they thought was the cause of the child’s symptoms.” Only 7.8% of the parents surveyed by Amirav et al [ 18 ] said that they felt more anxious after reading their child’s letter.…”

“…The body of Copying Letters research repeatedly documents the ways in which parents, as in-home managers of their children’s health, perceive themselves as silent partners of physicians [ 15 - 18 ]. It is clear that these parents valued access to clinician-authored documentation of their child’s care.…”

“…Liapi et al [ 19 ] compared adult patients in an otolaryngology clinic with 100 parents of pediatric patients; 77% of the parents found the copied letters helpful. Most recently, Amirav et al [ 18 ], who surveyed parents of pediatric patients with asthma, reported that 80% of the parents called the letters "helpful" and 98% indicated that they would want similar letters in the future.…”

In Anticipation of Sharing Pediatric Inpatient Notes: Focus Group Study With Stakeholders (Preprint)

“…Liapi et al [19] found only one complaint about content: out of 200 parents, 2 "felt that the letter did not accurately describe what they thought was the cause of the child's symptoms." Only 7.8% of the parents surveyed by Amirav et al [18] said that they felt more anxious after reading their child's letter.…”

“…The body of Copying Letters research repeatedly documents the ways in which parents, as in-home managers of their children's health, perceive themselves as silent partners of physicians [15][16][17][18]. It is clear that these parents valued access to clinician-authored documentation of their child's care.…”