Optimizing the quality of hospital discharge summaries--a systematic review and practical tools.

Objective: Although doctors' discharge summaries (DS) are important forms of communication between the physicians in patient care, deficits in the quality of DS are common. This review aims to answer the following question: according to the literature, how can the quality of DS be improved by (1) interventions; (2) reviews and guidelines of regulatory bodies; and (3) other practical recommendations?

Methods: Systematic review of the literature.

Results: The scientific papers on optimizing the quality of DS (n = 234) are heterogeneous and do not allow any meta-analysis.