The SIGN discharge document

The SIGN discharge document was published in 2012 and is now over seven years old. This guideline will be withdrawn in 2022, as without a full review of the evidence it is not possible to be certain that this guideline:

• remains relevant to NHSScotland
• makes recommendations based on the most up-to-date evidence for best practice
• does not recommend unsafe practice, and
• complies with current mandatory advice or government policy.

When patients are discharged from hospital back into the care of their general practitioner essential information about their stay in hospital is sent by the hospital to their general practitioner in the form of a discharge document. Improving the quality and timeliness of discharge documents may lead to improvements in patient safety by improving the process of transition from hospital to GP care.

Remit and target users

The aim of this document is to present a template for a single discharge document that can be used as both the immediate discharge document (in its core format) for every patient on the day of discharge, and as the final discharge summary/letter (in its extended format) for more complex cases.

The discharge document is of relevance to all hospital medical and nursing staff, allied health professionals, general practitioners, community nurses, pharmacists, and out-of-hours services.

How this document was developed

This document was developed through review of SIGN 65: The immediate discharge document by a multidisciplinary group. Further details can be found in section 5 of the document .

Keeping up to date

This guideline was issued in 2012 and will be considered for review in three years. The review history, and any updates to the guideline in the interim period, will be noted in the review report.

Some recommendations may be out of date, declaration of interests governance may not be in line with current policy.