Family practice
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With specialist palliative care services becoming widespread, and the place of the GP in palliative care being examined, audit of patient care delivered by GPs is required in order to ensure adequate standards of care. ⋯ Quality assurance mechanisms present in an in-patient palliative care setting appear to be associated with high-quality care by GPs.
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Review
A PIL for every ill? Patient information leaflets (PILs): a review of past, present and future use.
This article reviews the usefulness and importance of written information, specifically leaflets, being given to patients. Evidence suggesting how both patient and doctor may benefit from the giving of written information is reviewed. ⋯ An argument is put forward that the giving of written information is an under-utilized resource in contributing to improving patient outcomes but that this may be changing with the increasing use of patient leaflet databases. The advantages and disadvantages of computer-generated patient leaflets are discussed and desirable further areas of research on computer-generated leaflets are proposed.