The Western Norway Mental Health Interface Study on Referral Letters

NCT01374035 | Withdrawn

• 1 other identifier: NSD-24340
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: N/A
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

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.

Conditions

Mental Disorders

Keywords

Health Service; Coordination; Referral letters; Mental Health; Adults

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Length of stay

  From date of admission or onset of out-patient treatment until date of discharge (documented in Electronic Patient Record as end of treatment periode), assessed up to six months from admission.

  Day of discharge assessed up to six months

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Response time for referral letters in Specialised Mental Health Care

  Referral letters will be followed for the duration of the assessment and prioritation process until response letter is sent, an expected avarage of 10 days.

Study Arms (2)

Participating GPs

EXPERIMENTAL

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)

Other: Quality improvement intervention

Control group

NO INTERVENTION

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)

Interventions

Quality improvement intervention 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.

Participating GPs

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Referral letters send from a GP to Public Specialised Mental Health Care
• Referrals for elective assessment or treatment

You may not qualify if:

• Referral letters send from other health personnel
• Referrals for acute care (within 24 hours)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Helse Fonna: lead
• University of Bergen: collaborator
• KU Leuven: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Helse Fonna Local Health Authorities

Haugesund, 5504, Norway

Location

Related Publications (5)

• 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.

  PMID: 22081994 BACKGROUND

• 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

  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.

  PMID: 28049470 BACKGROUND

• 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.

  PMID: 23958371 RESULT

• 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.

  PMID: 35655302 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Mental Disorders; Psychological Well-Being

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personal Satisfaction; Behavior

Study Officials

• Aslak B Aslaksen, MD, PhD

  Faculty of Medicine and Dentistery, University of Bergen, Norway

  STUDY CHAIR

• Kjell Haug, MD, PhD

  Faculty of Medicine and Dentistery, University of Bergen, Norway

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Kris Vanhaecht, RN, PhD

  KU Leuven

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: PhD-student

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 28, 2011
• First Posted: June 15, 2011
• Study Start: August 1, 2010
• Primary Completion: June 22, 2016
• Study Completion: December 13, 2019
• Last Updated: February 13, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

NO (1)