Background: Almost 20% of patients experience potentially preventable adverse events within 30 days of hospital discharge (Forster, et al, 2003). The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommends structured and patient-centered discharge communication to prevent adverse events post-discharge (2018). The Joint Commission mandates information that must be included in all discharge communication including reason for hospitalization, significant findings, procedures and treatment provided, patient\u27s discharge condition, patient and family instructions, and attending physician signature (Horwitz, et al, 2013). There is limited data suggesting how healthcare providers believe discharge communication should be prioritized. Blaine, et al, 2018 cites Discharge Education/Teach-back and Involve Care Team as the aspects perceived by providers as having the highest importance. Sorita, et al, 2017 cites medical history, physical findings, cognitive and functional status at discharge, and rationale for medication changes to be “very important” Patient satisfaction with discharge information strongly correlates to overall satisfaction with hospital care (Waniga, et al, 2016). Surprisingly, there is no data on patient’s perceptions about discharge instruction elements and on the relative importance of discharge information. One study demonstrated that 44% of patients felt that improvements were needed to the areas of formatting/layout, clarity, correcting discrepancies/omitted information (Corser, et al, 2017). Determining how discharge information should prioritized may help to make discharge communication more patient-centered, and prevent readmissions and adverse events
