In England approximately 30% of community nurse referrals are differed on the first visit with a loss of 5 hours per visit. 66% of this is due to incomplete information on referral (Clover 2010). We were unable to understand the full picture of the origin of the community nurse referrals as these referrals are not measured or monitored by referring or receiving organisations. However we have identified that community nurse referrals originates from acute hospitals, GP surgeries/clinics and other organisations.
Community referral is a service of the ETPIER™ Application Suite.
To enable a nurse or clinician to make a community referral for the patient’s with all of the essential information needed by the receiving nurse to be included. For example the reason for the referral, diagnosis, care needs, community services required/arranged, and then to make the referral information immediately available to the next point of care in the patient’s journey.