Discharge Checklist

1. Confirm the follow-up physician
   • Usually the first attending who saw the patient
   • Ask if patient was seen by Dr. CM, or if you are unsure
2. Place Continuing Care Follow Up VGH order (preferred over Referral order)
   • See figure for details
3. Arrange all other necessary follow up
   • Referral order if one exists, otherwise create a Provider Letter and send to the consulting physician
   • Do not rely on instructions in the discharge summary — “by way of this letter” is not acceptable
4. Reorder tests for outpatient (all pending inpatient tests will be cancelled)
   • Change Ordering Physician to the follow up physician (see figure 2)
   • If unable to set Ordering MD, add Follow up MD to CC list
   • Future visit = Yes, Schedule as = Outpatient
5. Tidy the diagnosis list
   • Write descriptive ‘display as’, using full spellings for the main diagnosis
     • Ischemic stroke, right MCA, secondary to atrial fibrillation, S/P TPA is better than R MCA occlusion
     • Intracerebral hemorrhage, right lentiform, secondary to hypertension is better than BG HTN ICH
   • Set important diagnoses to ‘Chronic’ so they will appear on the past medical history (e.g. ischemic strokes, intracerebral hemorrhage, atrial fibrillation, etc.)
6. Write the discharge summary*
   • Write a good title e.g. Stroke Discharge – Ischemic stroke, new atrial fibrillation
   • Distribute to Follow Up MD (they won’t get a copy otherwise)

Figures #

Figure 1: Details for the continuing care order

Figure 2: Changing the Ordering Physician for an order

Figure 3 – Update Active Issues list, using descriptive ‘Display As’ and setting chronic flags

Figure 4 – Tap Modify to write Display As text