The Western Norway Mental Health Interface Study on Referral Letters

NCT ID: NCT01374035

Last Updated: 2020-02-13

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: WITHDRAWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2010-08-01
• Study Completion Date: 2019-12-13

Brief Summary

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.

Detailed 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.

Conditions

Mental Disorders

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Participating GPs

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)

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Quality improvement intervention

Intervention Type: OTHER

A complex intervention will be implemented within the group of GPs in the intervention group. It includes participation in defining criteria for good referral letters, information about the correlation between information in the referral letters and outcome, introduction to the guideline, and consecutive feedback on own preformance regarding content of referral letter and outcome for the patient.

Control group

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)

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Quality improvement intervention

A complex intervention will be implemented within the group of GPs in the intervention group. It includes participation in defining criteria for good referral letters, information about the correlation between information in the referral letters and outcome, introduction to the guideline, and consecutive feedback on own preformance regarding content of referral letter and outcome for the patient.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Bergen

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

KU Leuven

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Helse Fonna

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Miriam Hartveit

PhD-student

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Aslak B Aslaksen, MD, PhD

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

Faculty of Medicine and Dentistery, University of Bergen, Norway

Kjell Haug, MD, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Faculty of Medicine and Dentistery, University of Bergen, Norway

Kris Vanhaecht, RN, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

KU Leuven

Locations

Helse Fonna Local Health Authorities

Haugesund, , Norway

Countries

Norway

References

Hartveit M, Biringer E, Vanhaeht K, Haug K, Aslaksen A. The Western Norway mental health interface study: a controlled intervention trial on referral letters between primary care and specialist mental health care. BMC Psychiatry. 2011 Nov 14;11:177. doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-11-177.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 22081994 (View on PubMed)

Hartveit M, Aslaksen A, Vanhaecht K, Thorsen O, Hove O, Haug K et al. Development and testing of an instrument in Western Norway to measure the quality of referral information from primary care to specialised mental health care. International Journal of Care Coordination18:2-3, 2015

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Hartveit M, Vanhaecht K, Thorsen O, Biringer E, Haug K, Aslaksen A. Quality indicators for the referral process from primary to specialised mental health care: an explorative study in accordance with the RAND appropriateness method. BMC Health Serv Res. 2017 Jan 3;17(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s12913-016-1941-1.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 28049470 (View on PubMed)

Hartveit M, Thorsen O, Biringer E, Vanhaecht K, Carlsen B, Aslaksen A. Recommended content of referral letters from general practitioners to specialised mental health care: a qualitative multi-perspective study. BMC Health Serv Res. 2013 Aug 19;13:329. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-13-329.

Reference Type: RESULT

PMID: 23958371 (View on PubMed)

Nymoen M, Biringer E, Hetlevik O, Thorsen O, Assmus J, Hartveit M. The impact of referral letter quality on timely access to specialised mental health care: a quantitative study of the reliability of patient triage. BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 Jun 2;22(1):735. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08139-3.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 35655302 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

NSD-24340

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id