The Western Norway Mental Health Interface Study on Referral Letters

Helse Fonna

Status: Withdrawn

Conditions: Mental Disorders

Treatments: Other: Quality improvement intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01374035

NSD-24340

Details and patient eligibility

About

The main object to this trial is to study the function of referral letters as a mean to coordinate the care process for adult people when referred from Primary Care to Specialised Mental Health Care. The study will explore if and to what degree the quality of these referral letters can be improved, and the potential improvement's impact on defined patient-, professional and organisational related outcomes. According to Medical Research Council guidelines for evaluating complex interventions, a stepwise design with the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to conduct a controlled intervention study.

Full description

The study is based on a stepwise progression including four steps. Within step one group interview with four mixed groups of health professionals (both Primary and Specialised Care), patient representatives and managers will be conducted. The groups will give input on firstly, what information they think is important to include in the referral letters, and secondly, what impact they think improved referral letters can have for the organisation and care within Specialised Mental Health Care. Within step two a validated check-list to assess the quality of referral letters will be developed. Within step three outcome measures will be developed and tested. Both step two and three will make use of the results from step one in addition to existing literature and testing. Step four is the intervention study where measures from the former steps will be used.

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Referral letters send from a GP to Public Specialised Mental Health Care
• Referrals for elective assessment or treatment

Exclusion criteria

• Referral letters send from other health personnel
• Referrals for acute care (within 24 hours)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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0 participants in 2 patient groups

Participating GPs

Experimental group

Description:

GPs working at randomly selected GP centers/offices within the region that are invited to participate and signs a written informed consent to participate. (N=30-40)

Treatment:

Other: Quality improvement intervention

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

GPs working at randomly selected GP centers/office within the region that are not invited to participate, will form the control group. (N=30-40)