ArticleOTO open
Improving Timeliness in Surgical Discharge Summary Distribution: A Quality Improvement Initiative.
Article in OTO open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Audit and Re-Audit of Discharge Summaries Completeness: A Strategy to Improve Patient Care Quality.Pakistan journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Striking the right balance between accountability and quality improvement: a discharge summary timeliness tale.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: To implement a quality improvement initiative to achieve an institutional targeted discharge summary distribution metric of 50% within 48 hours of patient discharge from hospital within an academic tertiary care otolaryngology-head and neck surgery department. Methods: A pre- and postintervention study was conducted. Process mapping was performed. Interventions included education and engagement, implementation of auto-authentication (distribution immediately following transcription without review by the most responsible physician), and audit and feedback. The percentage of discharge summaries dictated with the auto-authentication code was evaluated. Process measures were collected for 12 months pre- and postimplementation. Balancing measures included workload and revisions to auto-authenticated notes. Analysis included summary statistics, statistical process control charting, and unpaired Results: The mean ± SD percentage of discharge summaries distributed within 48 hours increased from 19% ± 6.4% preintervention to 54% ± 20% postintervention ( Discussion: Our surgical department exceeded and sustained the targeted metric for timely discharge summary distribution using a quality improvement approach. Implications for Practice: Timely distribution of discharge summaries optimizes patients' transitions of care and can be achieved through stakeholder education and engagement, auto-authentication, and audit with feedback.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.