Aug 22, 2013: New research reveals hospitals need clearer, well-designed discharge processes for older patients, noting that patient satisfaction with the discharge process doesn't indicate how well patients actually understand the reason for hospitalization and post-discharge care goals, concludes a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Researchers talked to about 400 patients 65 years and older discharged from 1,541-bed Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital between May 2009 and April 2010 about their experience, responses they compared to what was written in their medical charts and their discharge instructions, reported Reuters.

Only 218 patients (59.6 percent) could accurately describe their diagnosis in post-discharge interviews, while discharge instructions included 99 written reasons for hospitalization (26.3 percent) that did not use language likely to be comprehensible to patients.

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New research reveals hospitals need clearer, well-designed discharge processes for older patients