Quality of hospital discharge letters for patients at the end of life: A retrospective medical record review

OBJECTIVE: For patients who are discharged to go home after a hospitalisation, timely and adequately informing their general practitioner is important for continuity of care, especially at the end of life. We studied the quality of the hospital discharge letter for patients who were hospitalised in their last year of life. METHODS: A retrospective medical record review was performed. Included patients had been admitted to the hospital during the period 1 January to 1 July 2017 and had died within a year after discharge. RESULTS: Data were collected from records of 108 patients with cancer or other diseases. For 57 patients (53%), the discharge letter included information that related to their limited life expectancy (e.g., agreements about treatment limitations), whereas the patient's limited life expectancy was addressed in the medical record in 76 cases (70%). We found related information in discharge letters for 36 patients (66%) who died <3 months compared to 21 patients (40%) who died 3–12 months after hospitalisation (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: For patients with a limited life expectancy going home after a hospitalisation, one out of two hospital discharge letters lacked any information addressing their limited life expectancy. Specific guidelines for medical information exchange between care settings are needed.