Discharge documentation of patients discharged to subacute facilities: a three-year quality improvement process across an integrated health care system.

Background: Effective communication among physicians during hospital discharge is critical to patient care. Partners Healthcare (Boston) has been engaged in a multi-year process to measure and improve the quality of documentation of all patients discharged from its five acute care hospitals to subacute facilities.

Methods: Partners first engaged stakeholders to develop a consensus set of 12 required data elements for all discharges to subacute facilities.

Communication and information deficits in patients discharged to rehabilitation facilities: an evaluation of five acute care hospitals.

Background: The quality of discharge documentation in patients discharged to rehabilitation centers and other subacute facilities is less well studied than that of patients discharged home.

Objective: To evaluate the quality of information transfer among patients discharged from acute hospitals to subacute facilities across an integrated healthcare delivery system.

Design: Retrospective evaluation of discharge documentation packets of selected patients.

Deficits in discharge documentation in patients transferred to rehabilitation facilities on anticoagulation: results of a systemwide evaluation.

Background: Anticoagulation is a commonly prescribed and effective therapy for several medical conditions but requires detailed communication among clinicians to avoid adverse patient outcomes following hospital discharge.

Methods: Discharge documentation packets of a sample of patients discharged from all five acute care hospitals of the Partners Healthcare System to 30 subacute facilities in Boston and prescribed anticoagulation for treatment or prophylaxis of thromboembolic disease were evaluated. Required data elements included information on anticoagulation indication, duration, dosing, monitoring, and follow-up.