Funny you mentioned about the H & Ps and the discharge summaries. The residents used to do these for me, but they no longer work with me. (Long story)
One of the heads of our Outreach Program, developed this one page discharge summary (still have to do the actual dictated version), which essentially is a good idea. It's designed so that if one is taking care of an unassigned patient for a PCP from 50 miles away, he or she gets a very quick, yet detailed version of what happened to his or her patient so when they show up the next day all of the info would be there.
Well, I have been admitting my own patients now for over a year without the help of the residents. I have been dictating all H & Ps. But, I have not used the discharge form.
So, today I discharged a patient, and I received a call from the hospital saying they couldn't send the patient home until I filled it out. Another knee-jerk, doesn't make sense decision. So, they faxed me the form, I filled it out, and they very nicely and timely faxed it back. Thank God. Because he is coming in on Wednesday, and I would have hated to not been aware of what I did. Hospital politics.
