Report Finds Some Patients Did Not Receive Discharge Instructions
Nearly 30 percent of patients discharged from Pennsylvania hospitals between June 2005 and December 2007 did not receive discharge instructions, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (PSA) said in a June 2008 report.
About 300 of those patients were discharged from the emergency department, while 500 were discharged after a hospital stay.
Some reasons patients did not receive instructions include:
- They knowingly left without them.
- The instructions were incomplete.
- They received another patient’s instructions.
The report also shows that some patients also received incomplete medication instructions, incomplete prescriptions, or another patient's prescription or medication instructions. Some patients were discharged before test results were available that might have delayed discharge.
A recent study showed that high rates of hospital readmission are related to poorly conducted discharge processes, the report said.
PSA has created a sample discharge checklist for facilities and a consumer tip sheet for patients.
For more information, read the June 2008 issue of the Patient Safety Advisory.
Last Updated: 7/17/2008