Effectiveness of a Patient-oriented Discharge Summary

NCT06123546 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: PODS_2024
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 111
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The discharge preparation is a difficult time to provide teaching, as older patients and their caregivers are often overwhelmed by a substantial amount of information and stressed about leaving hospital. As a result, 40-80% of patients forget or remember incorrectly the information discussed during hospitalisation, resulting in unmet needs, poor adherence to postdischarge care and increased use of health care services in the postdischarge period. The Patient-Oriented Discharge Summary (PODS) is a simple, one-page tool to be completed with key information, such as the reason for hospitalisation, warning signs to look out for, contact information, treatment plan and upcoming medical appointments. The PODS study will assess the effectiveness of the PODS on the quality of the transition between hospital and patients' home and problems and unmet needs after discharge.

Conditions

Multimorbidity

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Quality of care transition measured with the Care Transition Measure Tool (CTM-15)

  Quality of care transition will be measured by the Care Transition Measure Tool (CTM-15) at 5-7 days post-discharge. The CTM is a 15-item self-report questionnaire to evaluate the quality of the posthospital care transition experience from patient's perspective, in four factors: critical understanding, preferences important, management preparation, care plan. Responses for each item range from 1 = ''strongly disagree,'' to 4 = "strongly agree". A mean score is calculated by adding the value of each responded item ad divide this score by the number of answered items. The score is converted on a 0-100 scale using the formula: ((mean score - 1)/3)\*100. Cronbach's alpha for the CTM-15 is 0.93. Construct validity showed that CTM scores had a small negative correlation with age (r = -0.16, p = 0.03 and length of stay (r = 0.14, p = 0.05).

  5-7 days after discharge

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Family Caregiver Activation in Transitions (FCAT)

  5-7 days after discharge

• Problems and unmet needs experienced during the week after discharge

  5-7 days after discharge

Study Arms (2)

Usual discharge preparation

NO INTERVENTION

Discharge teaching according to the usual discharge preparation process in participating units

Teaching with a patient-oriented discharge summary

EXPERIMENTAL

Discharge teaching with a patient-oriented discharge summary, using the teach-back technique and inclusion of caregivers

Other: Patient oriented discharge summary

Interventions

Patient oriented discharge summary OTHER

The intervention consists of three components: the patient-oriented discharge summary (PODS), the teach-back technique and the involvement of caregivers. The PODS will be completed with participants over the course of the hospitalisation as teaching content related to the six sections of information is delivered. Participants will take the PODS home at discharge to use it as a reference for relevant and individualized discharge information in the post-discharge period. Healthcare providers will receive a training refresher on the teach-back technique and will be reminded to use it when they deliver discharge teaching during participants' hospital stay. Involvement of caregivers will include early identification by the healthcare provider responsible for patient admission of a caregiver who will provide care at home, at least one teaching session during hospitalization and the review of the PODS the day of discharge.

Also known as: PODS

Teaching with a patient-oriented discharge summary

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 50 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Being discharged home
• Able to speak, read and write in French
• Being hospitalized for more than 48H in participating medical units
• Being able to give informed consent as documented by signature

You may not qualify if:

• Inability to follow the procedures of the study according to the health care team, due to language problems or cognitive impairment.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Lausanne: lead

Study Sites (1)

Hôpital de Morges

Morges, Canton of Vaud, 1110, Switzerland

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Pellet J, Solano Araujo R, Kathirkamu S, Hilfiker R, Bartholdi N, Mabire C. Implementing a patient-oriented discharge summary to improve hospital-to-home transitions in older adults: lessons from a hybrid study. Front Health Serv. 2026 Jan 16;5:1730127. doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1730127. eCollection 2025.

  PMID: 41623518 DERIVED

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: SEQUENTIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Model Details: Months 1-4: recruitment/data collection of the control group Month 5: implementation of the intervention Month 5-8: recruitment/data collection of the intervention group

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 5, 2023
• First Posted: November 8, 2023
• Study Start: June 7, 2024
• Primary Completion: March 31, 2025
• Study Completion: April 1, 2025
• Last Updated: October 3, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-09

Locations

CH (1)