Hospital Nurses' and Physicians' Use of Information Sources during their Production of Discharge Summaries: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Hospital nurses' and physicians' production and exchange of accurate information between levels of care are crucial for ensuring safe and seamless care for patients in transition. We report on a study in which we explored hospital providers' use of information sources when they prepared discharge information for colleges in the community health-care sector. In this cross-sectional study, 510 nurses and 236 physicians responded through a questionnaire. Our findings show that nurses and physicians use different information sources in patient records when they produce their discharge summaries.