A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis on the risks of medical discharge letters for patients' safety. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis on the risks of medical discharge letters for patients' safety. | AHRQ Patient Safety Network

• Review
 
• Published March 2019

A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis on the risks of medical discharge letters for patients' safety.

Schwarz CM, Hoffmann M, Schwarz P, Kamolz LP, Brunner G, Sendlhofer G. BMC Health Serv Res. 2019;19:158.

Care transitions represent a vulnerable time for patients, especially at the time of hospital discharge. In this systematic review, researchers identified several factors related to discharge summaries that may adversely impact the safety of discharged patients, including delays in sending discharge summaries to outpatient providers as well as missing or low-quality information.

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