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Availability of patient records and psychiatric admission rate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Polash Shajahan  and
Timothy Agnew
Polash Shajahan
Affiliation:
NHS Lanarkshire, Airbles Road Centre, 49 Airbles Road, Motherwell ML1 2TP, email: [email protected]
Timothy Agnew
Affiliation:
NHS Lanarkshire, Airbles Road Centre, Motherwell
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Abstract

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Aims and Method

Trainee psychiatrists often perform emergency mental health assessments. Traditionally, it has been considered that having access to past psychiatric records will reduce the likelihood of a patient being admitted. We examined whether the availability of records had an influence on admission by recording all contacts to the duty junior psychiatrist in two district general hospitals over a 6-month period.

Results

For those with chronic or enduring mental illnesses there is a 27% increase in the likelihood of admission if past records are available. For all other patients the increase is 10%.

Clinical Implications

Contrary to our expectations, the availability of records increases the likelihood of admission to mental health admission units.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 30 , Issue 12 , December 2006 , pp. 449 - 451
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2006

References

General Medical Council (2001) Good Medical Practice. London: General Medical Council. http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/library/GMP.pdf Google Scholar
Quirk, A. & Lelliot, P. (2001) What do we know about life on acute psychiatric wards in the UK? A review of the research evidence. Social Science and Medicine, 53, 1565–1574.Google Scholar
Scottish Executive (2004) Working Together to Improve Unscheduled Care in NHS Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive.Google Scholar
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