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An evaluation of referral tickets for acute psychiatric admissions
Background
Tickets of referral assist in clerking and the enforcement
of the Mental Health Act. Initial reviewers of the patient
who may be more aware of his/her background may
provide this information when transferring a patient to
Mount Carmel Hospital, Malta’s psychiatric hospital.
Objectives
The aims of this study were to assess whether key
information on referral tickets was lacking as well as to
justify the importance of such information when referring
a new case and raise awareness on appropriate referral.
Methods
Permission to review the tickets of referral for new
admissions from the community to Mount Carmel
Hospital during the month of June 2015 was obtained
from the Chairman of Psychiatry. The files of new
admissions were assessed to see if the following were
present: official referral ticket; drug history; next of kin
details; handover to staff at Mount Carmel Hospital. The
place of initial assessment was also noted. All data was
anonymised and data input was done using a prepared
proforma. Patients referred from the civil prison and by
the caring consultant’s firm were not included.
Results
Seventy admissions were assessed. Eighty-nine per cent
(n=62) of these admissions included an official ticket
of referral. Most referrals came from health centres: 31%
(n=22). Seventy-four per cent (n=51) had a drug history
present. Seventy-six per cent (n=53) were lacking next
of kin details. Forty per cent (n=28) of the cases had
documentation of a handover to a senior on call.
Conclusions
Poor quality referral tickets with missing information are
often present which makes it difficult for the on-call staff at Mount Carmel Hospital to clerk the patient and come
up with a provisional treatment plan.peer-reviewe
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