The transition from hospital to home represents a critical and vulnerable period in patient care, with numerous opportunities for communication breakdowns, medication errors, and gaps in follow-up care.
Discharge summaries serve as essential tools for communicating patient information between hospital and community care providers, yet their effectiveness in supporting patients during this transition remains understudied.
While discharge planning and communication have been extensively researched from healthcare providers’ perspectives, patients’ direct experiences with reading and utilizing their own discharge summaries have received comparatively little attention.
The quality of discharge processes can significantly impact patient confidence, overall hospital experience, ability to self-manage health conditions at home, and hospital readmission rates.
Previous research has demonstrated that patients often interact with community providers before discharge information has been fully transferred, leaving patients and families to serve as the primary information conduits during this transition.
Information transparency through patient access to discharge documentation represents a potentially transformative approach to patient engagement, but questions remain about how patients interpret, understand, and act upon the information contained in these clinical documents.
This study, Patients and families reading their discharge summaries: A cross-sectional analysis of benefits, concerns, and implications, addresses this knowledge gap by exploring patients’ experiences with reading their discharge summaries and identifying specific concerns and benefits encountered during the post-hospitalization period.
Key Findings
This study looked at how patients felt about reading their discharge summaries after leaving the hospital. Nearly 400 patients responded to an email survey, and most found the summaries helpful
- around 67% better understood why they were hospitalised,
- 72% felt clearer about their next steps, and
- 74% knew how to manage medications.
However, over a quarter still had concerns, particularly about unclear explanations and follow-up actions. The study suggests improving transparency and clarity in discharge summaries could significantly help patients during this transition.
Enabling Health Technologies
A health communication solution like PEP Health, with its document-sharing features, can play a pivotal role in delivering shared discharge summaries to patients and their families, addressing the concerns highlighted in the study
By providing patients with easy access to their discharge summaries through a secure platform, PEP Health enables transparency and empowers patients to better understand their hospitalisation reasons, medication changes, and follow-up steps.
Furthermore, the platform’s functionality for sharing documents in real-time allows clinicians to address concerns proactively, such as clarifying medication instructions or correcting documentation errors, thus improving patient engagement and overall health outcomes.
Leveraging PEP Health’s Features for Improved Discharge Communication
PEP Health’s robust feature set directly addresses many of the challenges identified in the hospital-to-home transition process. The platform’s progress tracking capabilities allow patients and providers to monitor recovery against discharge recommendations, potentially improving adherence to care plans and reducing readmission risks.
This aligns with research showing communication interventions at discharge are significantly associated with fewer hospital readmissions, higher treatment adherence, and increased patient satisfaction.
The content library functionality enables healthcare organisations to supplement discharge information with educational resources that reinforce understanding of diagnoses and treatment plans, addressing the qualitative finding that patients’ concerns often relate to explanations and next steps.
Facilitating Information Transparency and Continuity of Care
The connectivity features of PEP Health directly address the study’s conclusion that information transparency could transform how patients engage in care and communicate with clinicians.
By enabling the sharing of discharge summaries with patients, PEP Health creates a continuous information flow that extends beyond the immediate discharge period. This aligns with healthcare providers’ recognition that “communication has to be precise, personalised and two-way if it is to provide the clinician and the patient with the information they need to achieve the best health outcomes”.
Addressing Documentation Concerns and Errors
One of the study’s focus areas was documentation errors in discharge summaries. PEP Health’s two-way communication channel allows patients to provide feedback on their discharge information, potentially helping to identify and correct errors more quickly.
Combined with the platform’s ability to connect care teams, this creates a more responsive ecosystem where concerns about medication instructions or follow-up steps can be addressed promptly, potentially reducing adverse events during the vulnerable post-discharge period.
OpenNotes advocates for better patient communications
OpenNotes is an international initiative advocating for increased transparency in healthcare by promoting the practice of clinicians sharing their medical documentation directly with patients, known as “open notes.”
The movement emphasises that sharing clinical notes enhances patient empowerment, improves communication between patients and healthcare providers, and contributes to safer, higher-quality care.
Through research, innovation, and education, OpenNotes identifies and disseminates best practices for making medical information accessible to patients and their care partners. The initiative is driven by evidence demonstrating that patient access to clinical notes positively impacts healthcare outcomes and patient safety.
The OpenNotes movement supports sharing discharge summaries with patients, as evidence shows this practice enhances patient understanding of hospitalization reasons, medication instructions, and subsequent care steps, thereby improving post-hospitalization outcomes and patient safety.
PEP Health is proud to provide off-the-shelf features and functions that support the implementation of an OpenNotes approach to patient communications.
How can we help?
A health communication solution like PEP Health, with its document-sharing features, can play a pivotal role in delivering shared discharge summaries to patients and their families, addressing the concerns highlighted in a recent article
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