How to read your dad's hospital discharge summary

When you are reading this

Your dad is home. A folder came home with him. The summary inside is six pages, dense, full of acronyms, and you are the one expected to know what to do with it.

You can read this. We will read it together.

The shape of a typical summary

Most discharge summaries follow the same outline:

• Reason for admission: what brought him in
• Hospital course: what happened day by day
• Discharge diagnoses: what the team concluded
• Medications: what changed, what stopped, what started
• Follow-up plan: who to see, when, why
• Pending results: lab or imaging that came back after he left

The names of the sections vary by hospital. The shape does not.

Five questions worth taking with you

[Full guide coming. The questions worth taking to the first follow-up appointment after discharge:]

• The medication list looks different than what he was on before. What changed and why?
• The discharge diagnoses include something that was not in the admit note. When was that diagnosed?
• The follow-up plan lists a specialist appointment. What is the team hoping that visit will resolve?
• There are pending results listed at the bottom. Who is responsible for following up on them?
• If something gets worse at home, what counts as worse-enough-to-call?

Where I come in

If you upload his discharge summary, I will read every section, pull the medical literature on the changes, and draft the questions that are specific to what is in the document. Not generic. The actual ones.