An Asthma Specialist's Consult Letter: What Do Parents Think About Receiving a Copy?

Objective: Written summaries about visits with general practitioners' have influenced increased patient knowledge, satisfaction, recollection, and compliance, and strengthened the doctor-patient relationship. All previous studies about this communication pre-dated the electronic medical record (EMR) era, and none examined views from parents of children with asthma. We explored parents' perceptions about receiving a hard copy summary Letter immediately following the visit, with the pediatric asthma specialist about findings and the care plan for their child.

Methods: A Parent Advisory Council helped inform this pilot study, an observational cross-sectional electronic survey. Each Letter included a comprehensive summary of the child's visit with the specialist.

Results: Previous findings from patients about the benefits of receiving this Letter were strongly supported by data from 51 participants. Interestingly, more than 54% of respondents preferred receiving a hard copy Letter over an electronic copy, and 98% wanted other clinicians to adopt this practice.

Conclusion: Parents of children with asthma value and want timely written information of this nature from other clinicians.

Practice Implications: These results can influence further asthma research to promote a change in the perceptions of clinicians, parents, and patients about timely access to health information in the EMR era.