The Impact of Revised Discharge Instructions on Patient Satisfaction

Heather Markey Waniga; Travis Gerke; Alena Shoemaker; Derek Bourgoine; Pracha Eamranond

doi:10.1177/2374373516666972

The Impact of Revised Discharge Instructions on Patient Satisfaction

J Patient Exp. 2016 Sep;3(3):64-68. doi: 10.1177/2374373516666972. Epub 2016 Nov 7.

Authors

Heather Markey Waniga¹, Travis Gerke², Alena Shoemaker^{1

3}, Derek Bourgoine¹, Pracha Eamranond^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Lawrence General Hospital, Lawrence, MA, USA.
² Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA.
³ Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Lawrence, MA, USA.
⁴ Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: The impact of discharge instructions on a patient's experience is not fully understood. This research explored whether nurse- and physician-generated discharge instructions had a positive effect on patient perceptions regarding their discharge experience.

Methods: We compared Press Ganey discharge-related patient satisfaction scores for the year prior to and the year subsequent to implementing revised discharge instructions for all patients admitted to a 180-bed community-based hospital.

Results: Following the implementation of our revised discharge instructions, patient satisfaction significantly improved (84.7% vs 83%, P < .01). Patients responded that they felt ready for discharge (86.6% vs 84.9%, P = .01) and were satisfied with instructions for home care (87.8% vs 85.3%, P < .01).

Discussion: This study finds that a novel discharge instruction set produced by both the nursing and physician staff may improve patient perceptions with the discharge process.

Keywords: discharge; discharge instructions; patient education; patient satisfaction; physician-generated discharge instructions.