Only 55 percent of medical school residents reported consistently completing discharge summaries for hospitalized patients being transferred to skilled nursing facilities, a study published in the November issue of Journal of the American Medical Directors Association found.
Researchers electronically surveyed 482 medical residents across three university-based programs in internal medicine and medicine-pediatrics across the U.S., of which 238 responded.
Key findings:
- Only 31 percent of residents knew how often patients received skilled therapies at skilled nursing facilities.
- Only 23 percent knew how frequently nursing services are provided.
- While 79 percent of residents identified discharge summaries as the main way they communicated care instructions to facilities, only 55 percent reported always completing it prior to discharge.