General practitioner views of an electronic high-risk medicine proforma to facilitate information transfer.

Abstract

Background The potential of warfarin related harm is increased if clinicians lack the full patient specific information to make informed decisions—an e-proforma has been developed to communicate this information on hospital discharge. Objective To determine the views of general practitioners (GPs) on a warfarin discharge e-proforma. Method A cross-sectional survey of all GPs (n=272) within the Raigmore Hospital catchment area of NHS Highland, Scotland. Results The response rate was 39.3% (107/272). 84 (78.5%) noticed recent changes to information supplied on discharge for warfarin patients. 64 (59.8%) respondents thought this would result in more informed prescribing with regards to dosing, while 65 (60.7%) felt this would improve safety. Accurate completion, timely receipt of the e-proforma and a realistic date for subsequent INR tests were considered important by GPs. Conclusion This study suggests the use of an e-proforma to communicate information about a high-risk medication, warfarin, to GPs on discharge optimises safe, informed prescribing and monitoring in primary care. The development of a discharge e-proforma for other high-risk medication as a patient safety improvement measure should be explored.