[Research on the influences that affect the physician's perception of discharge summaries. A survey of outpatient department physicians].

The object of this study was to improve the completion of discharge summaries. The purpose of this article is: 1. to describe the perceptions of outpatient department physicians as to whether incomplete discharge summaries affect outpatient medical care or not, and 2. to elucidate the factors contributing to their perceptions. The physicians were randomly selected from among "the National Certified Training Hospitals" and "Japan Society for Quality in Health Care", and the size of the hospitals, the medical record management system and the format of the discharge summary were chosen for analysis of the factors that affect physicians' perceptions. Of the 2,304 questionnaires sent, 935 (40.6%) were returned. The results showed that 832 (89.0%) of the physicians thought that outpatient medical care would be affected if discharge summaries were not completed. Based on the analysis of the factors affecting the perceptions of the physicians, there was a trend showing that the influence was lower in small hospitals (p < 0.05), that the centralized management system for medical records had a higher influence (p < 0.05), and that the format of the discharge summary also affects physician's perceptions (p < 0.05).