Assessment of Patient Education Delivered at Time of Hospital Discharge.

Importance: Patient education at time of hospital discharge is critical for smooth transitions of care; however, empirical data regarding discharge communication are limited.

Objective: To describe whether key communication domains (medication changes, follow-up appointments, disease self-management, red flags, question solicitation, and teach-back) were addressed at the bedside on the day of hospital discharge, by whom, and for how long.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This quality improvement study was conducted from September 2018 through October 2019 at inpatient medicine floors in 2 urban, tertiary-care teaching hospitals and purposefully sampled patients designated as "discharge before noon.