Does copying clinical or sharing correspondence to patients result in better care?

BACKGROUND

Communication between healthcare professionals and patients is suboptimal and the measures to improve patient satisfaction such as sharing correspondence have been reported in different settings.

METHODS

A review of published literature was undertaken to specifically examine patient satisfaction and the professional healthcare provider experience across a range of specialities and settings.

RESULTS

Patients generally report high rates of satisfaction when receiving copies of correspondence although both patient and professional experience within general psychiatry indicates that further consideration may be required before routinely adopting the practice of copying letters in this discipline.

CONCLUSIONS

Dictating letters in the presence of patients can improve patient satisfaction accuracy and modalities such as the use of audio or video recordings may be useful in more specialised settings.