Abstract
Background: Oxygen is one of the most commonly prescribed medicines in secondary care.BTS Emergency oxygen guidelines(2008) highlight the importance of oxygen being prescribed on medication charts including flow rate and target saturations.A number of patients will be discharged with home oxygen therapy.Discharge documentation is provided to both patient and GP includes discharge medications.It is unknown if home oxygen therapy is consistently on discharge documentation including flow rate,hours per day of use and target saturation.
Aim: To evaluate discharge documentation at St Barts hospital (SBH) and Royal London hospital (RLH) for patients newly prescribed home oxygen therapy
Method: Adult patients,newly prescribed home oxygen therapy on discharge from RLH or SBH between May to October 2015 were included.Paediatric patients and patients newly commenced on home oxygen in clinic or community were excluded.The electronic patient records (EPR) system was used to obtain the discharge documentation.
Results: 37 patients were newly prescribed home oxygen during the six month period,76% had “home oxygen therapy” documented in the discharge documentation.However all documentation had this in the free text summary section,unlike other medications documented in table format with clear dosage and frequency.Hence 43% of discharge documentation stated a flow rate,21% hours per day of oxygen use and 7% a target saturation range.
46% had identified clinic follow up and 7% mentioned a home follow up.
Conclusion: Home oxygen therapy is a medication however patients newly commenced on home oxygen therapy commonly do not have a flow rate or hours per day of use documented on discharge documentation.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016