The Check-Out Checklist

An evidence-based hospital discharge checklist that starts at admission might improve safe transition from hospital to home.

With the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reducing payments to facilities with high rates of readmission, discharge safety and efficacy is ever more paramount. A multidisciplinary consensus panel of experts (in acute, chronic, home, and long-term care and in rehabilitation medicine) convened by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care developed a safe hospital-discharge checklist of evidence-based predischarge, postdischarge, and bridging practices, categorized into the following seven domains that represent events that should be completed during a typical hospitalization:

1. Indication for hospitalization

2. Primary care

Identify/confirm primary care physician (PCP)
Contact/notify PCP of patient admission, diagnosis, pre…

Reviewing Authors

Kathleen Finn, MD

Daniel D. Dressler, MD, MSc, SFHM, FACP

Disclosures

RoyaltiesMcGraw-Hill; Elsevier

Editorial BoardsMedical Clinics of North America; Caribbean Medical Journal International Advisory Panel (2021–2026)

Daniel D. Dressler, MD, MSc, SFHM, FACP

Disclosures

RoyaltiesMcGraw-Hill; Elsevier

Editorial BoardsMedical Clinics of North America; Caribbean Medical Journal International Advisory Panel (2021–2026)

The Check-Out Checklist

Topics

Reviewing Authors