- Electronic health data related to a healthcare encounter or episode of care and including essential information about admission, treatment and discharge of a natural person.
- Hospital discharge summaries serve as the primary documents communicating a patient’s care plan to the post-hospital care team. Often, the discharge summary is the only form of communication that accompanies the patient to the next setting of care. It is a report which encompasses a summary of events occurred during a hospital encounter usually manifesting as a hospital admission, stay and discharge, and including communication of a care plan. For a more detailed list of elements, please refer to the dataset (Chapter 4).
Acronym / Synonym
Discharge Report, hospital discharge report, hospital discharge summary
Definition Source
1) European Commission – Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Health Data Space
2) Kind AJH, Smith MA. Documentation of Mandated Discharge Summary Components in Transitions from Acute to Subacute Care. In: Henriksen K, Battles JB, Keyes MA, et al., editors. Advances in Patient Safety:
New Directions and Alternative Approaches (Vol. 2: Culture and Redesign). Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2008 Aug. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK43715/