An after-visit summary is the plain-language page a patient takes home: why they came, what you found, what changed in their medicines, what to do next, and when to get help. Copy the free template, see a new blood pressure diagnosis and a toddler’s ear infection written the way the patient reads them, and check what goes in each part.
Blank after-visit summary template
FreeAFTER-VISIT SUMMARY [Practice name] [Phone, hours, and patient portal] Patient: [Full name] Date of birth: [Date] Visit date: [Date] Seen by: [Clinician's name and role] Language of this summary: [Language, and the interpreter used at the visit, or none] WHY YOU CAME IN [The reason for the visit, in the patient's own words] WHAT WE FOUND [Measurements, exam findings, and results reviewed today, in plain words, with the numbers that matter] WHAT WE THINK IS GOING ON [Each diagnosis in plain words first, then its medical name, and what it means for the patient] YOUR MEDICINES New: [Medicine, what it is for, how much, when to take it, and for how long, or none] Changed: [Medicine, the old dose, the new dose, and why, or none] Stopped: [Medicine, and why, or none] Keep taking: [The patient's other medicines as before, or none] Side effects to know about: [Common ones that pass, and ones to call about] TESTS Ordered today: [Each test, why, when and where to go, and how to prepare, or none] Your results: [How results will reach the patient, by when, who calls if one needs action, and when to call if they hear nothing] WHAT TO DO AT HOME [Two to five steps, each one thing to do, with how much, how often, and for how long] WHEN TO GET HELP Call us the same day if: [Symptoms that need a same-day call] Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department if: [Symptoms that need emergency care] After hours: [Nurse line or after-hours number] YOUR NEXT APPOINTMENT Next visit: [Date, time, place, and with whom, or when and how to book] Bring: [Home readings, medicine bottles, forms, or questions] Referrals: [Who we referred you to, and when they will contact you, or none] Copy sent to: [Family doctor, specialist, or no one] Questions? Call [practice phone] or send a message through [patient portal].
Use it for
Each one follows the template. Use them to judge how much detail every part needs.
Family practice, 54-year-old man, follow-up visit with a phone interpreter; summary given in Spanish and English
To go over your home blood pressure readings. Your blood pressure was 158/98 at the pharmacy in October, and 154/96 here on October 26. You feel well.
Your blood pressure today: 152/94. Your home readings: an average of 150/95 over 7 days. Your heart, lungs, and pulses are normal. Your blood sugar, cholesterol, kidney, and urine tests from October 26 were all normal.
High blood pressure, also called hypertension. Your readings are high both at home and here, so this is not from feeling nervous at the clinic. High blood pressure usually causes no symptoms, but over years it can harm the heart, brain, and kidneys. Bringing it down lowers your chance of a stroke or heart attack.
New: telmisartan and amlodipine, 40 mg and 5 mg in one tablet. Take 1 tablet every morning, every day, even when you feel well. Stopped: ibuprofen for your knee. It can raise blood pressure, and with your new medicine it can strain your kidneys. For knee pain, use acetaminophen instead, up to 1,000 mg 3 times a day. Changed: none. Keep taking: your vitamin D as before. Side effects: ankle swelling, flushing, or a headache can happen in the first weeks. If you feel dizzy, stand up slowly.
A blood test to check your kidneys and potassium on your new medicine, any weekday from November 23 to 27. The lab form is printed with this summary. You don’t need to fast. The result goes to your patient portal within a week of the test. If it needs action, a nurse will call you. If you haven’t heard from us by December 4, please call.
1. Check your blood pressure for the 7 days before your next visit, November 30 to December 6: 2 readings each morning and 2 each evening. Sit quietly for 5 minutes first, back supported, feet flat, arm resting at heart level. Write them down. Your goal is under 130/80 at home. 2. Eat less salt: under 2,000 mg of sodium a day. Bread, soup, deli meat, and restaurant meals have the most. 3. Walk for 30 minutes on most days.
Call us the same day if your ankles swell and it doesn’t go away, you feel faint when you stand, or a home reading is 180/120 or higher twice, 5 minutes apart, and you feel well otherwise. Call 911 if you have chest pain, trouble breathing, a sudden bad headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, or a change in your vision, whatever your reading. Also call 911 if your face, lips, or tongue swell. After hours, call the nurse line on the front of this page.
Monday, December 7, 2026, at 9:20 a.m., with your family doctor. Bring your home readings and all your medicine bottles. If your readings are still above your goal, we may raise the dose.
Urgent care, Thursday evening visit, 18-month-old boy with his mother; copy sent to his family doctor
Your son has had a fever and has been pulling at his right ear since last night. He had a runny nose for 4 days before that. He is fussy and slept badly, but he is drinking and has had wet diapers today.
Temperature: 38.6 °C, 101.5 °F. Weight: 11 kg, 24 lb 4 oz. His right eardrum is red and bulging, with fluid behind it. His left ear, throat, chest, and skin are normal. He is alert and not dehydrated.
An infection in the middle ear, behind the right eardrum. The medical name is acute otitis media. It often follows a cold. Many ear infections clear up on their own in 2 to 3 days, so we agreed to treat the pain and wait before starting an antibiotic.
For pain and fever, use one of these. Children’s ibuprofen, 100 mg in 5 mL: give 5 mL every 6 to 8 hours with food or milk, no more than 4 doses in 24 hours. Children’s acetaminophen, 160 mg in 5 mL: give 5 mL every 4 to 6 hours, no more than 5 doses in 24 hours. Use the syringe that comes with the medicine. Wait-and-see antibiotic: amoxicillin liquid, 400 mg in 5 mL, sent to your pharmacy. Start it only if he isn’t better by Saturday evening, November 7, or if he gets worse before then. If you start it, give 6 mL by mouth twice a day, morning and evening, for 10 days, even after he feels better. Changed or stopped: none.
None needed. An ear infection is found by looking at the eardrum.
1. Give pain medicine regularly for the first day or two, and before bed. 2. Offer drinks often: milk, water, or what he usually has. 3. Keep him away from cigarette smoke, which makes ear infections more likely. 4. He can go back to daycare once he has had no fever for 24 hours without fever medicine. The ear infection doesn’t spread to other children, but the cold behind it can.
Call his family doctor the same day or the next morning if he still has a fever after 2 days on the antibiotic, fluid or pus drains from his ear, or he gets a rash while taking the antibiotic. Go to the nearest emergency department or call 911 if he is very sleepy or hard to wake, has a stiff neck, has swelling or redness behind the ear or the ear sticks out, has no wet diaper in 8 hours, has trouble breathing, or his lips or face swell.
No ear check is needed if he gets better. Fluid can stay behind the eardrum for weeks, up to 3 months, after the infection clears, and his hearing on that side may be muffled until then. Ask his family doctor to check his ears at his 2-year check-up in May 2027, or book sooner if you think he isn’t hearing well. A copy of this summary goes to his family doctor today.
Who the summary is for, which visit it covers, and the language it is written in. Give it in the language the patient reads best.
Avoid: An English summary for a patient who reads another language best. They can’t follow a page they can’t read.
The visit in two short blocks: the reason, in the patient’s words, and what you measured, saw, and checked.
Avoid: Pasting the exam from the note. “TM erythematous, bulging” means nothing to a parent at 9 p.m.
Each diagnosis in everyday words, then its medical name, so the patient can look it up and recognize it on the next form.
Avoid: A list of codes or every problem on the chart. Name what you talked about today.
Every change made today, on its own line: new, changed, and stopped. This is the part patients come back to most.
Avoid: Leaving out a stopped medicine. The one you stopped and didn’t write down is the one the patient keeps taking.
What was ordered, how to get it done, and how the result will reach the patient.
Avoid: “We’ll let you know.” A lost result then looks the same as a normal one.
A few steps the patient can follow, and the warning signs, split by how fast to act.
Avoid: “Return if worse.” Name the signs, and say how quickly to act on each one.
When the patient comes back, what to bring, and who else will be in touch.
Avoid: “Follow up as needed.” Give a date, or say plainly that no visit is needed.
“HTN, start telmisartan/amlodipine 40/5 daily, BMP 2/52, RTC 4/52” is a note, not a summary. Write it the way you would say it across the desk: what it is, what to take, what to do, and when to come back.
Give new, changed, and stopped medicines their own lines, with the dose and the reason. A change hidden in a sentence is easy to miss at home.
Patients can’t act on “worse.” Name the warning signs, and split them into a same-day call and 911 or the emergency department.
Say how results arrive, who calls if one needs action, and the date to call you if they hear nothing. Without that, silence reads as good news.
Aim for about grade 6 to 8: short sentences, everyday words, the plain name before the medical one. Ask the patient to tell you the plan back before they leave.
A general handout explains a condition. The summary says what applies to this patient: their dose, their dates, their warning signs. Attach the handout if it helps, and keep the summary to a page or two.
Vero Scribe drafts the after-visit summary in your template from the visit, with the patient’s consent, or from your dictation, in plain words and in the patient’s language: Vero works in 60+ languages. You review and edit every section, then copy it into your record or export it to Word or PDF to give to the patient.
A plain-language page the patient takes home at the end of a visit: why they came, what you found, their diagnosis, medicine changes, tests and how results will reach them, what to do at home, when to get help, and the next appointment. It’s written for the patient, not the chart.
The reason for the visit, the findings that matter, each diagnosis in plain words, new, changed, and stopped medicines, tests ordered and how results arrive, a few steps for home, warning signs split into a same-day call and 911, and the next appointment. Put your phone number and portal at the top.
About grade 6 to 8. Use short sentences and everyday words, give the plain name before the medical one, and write doses, dates, and numbers the patient can act on. Before they leave, ask them to tell you the plan in their own words.
The visit note is your clinical record of the visit. A patient summary covers the whole record, mostly for the next clinician. An after-visit summary covers this one visit, for the patient, and says what to do next.
No. A patient education handout explains a condition in general. An after-visit summary says what applies to this patient after this visit: their dose, their dates, their warning signs. Many clinicians attach a handout to the summary.
Yes, and you should when they read another language better. Vero drafts the summary in the patient’s language, in any of 60+ languages, for you to review and edit. Go over the medicines and warning signs with a qualified interpreter, and keep a copy of what you gave the patient in your record.
Yes. Copy it, or download it as a Word or text file. No account needed.
Yes. Vero Scribe drafts the summary in your template from the visit, with the patient’s consent, or from your dictation, in plain words and in the patient’s language. You review and edit every section, then copy it into your record or export it to Word or PDF to print or send.
For work or school: the visit, the dates off, the return, and any limits.
To an employer: full or modified duties, the restrictions, how long they last, and the review date.
To an employer or leave administrator: when the leave starts, how long it lasts, the review date, and what the return needs.
To an employer: what the condition limits, the change that would help, how long, and answers to the employer’s questions.
To an employer: the pregnancy-related limitation, the change needed at work, and how long it lasts.
How Vero drafts a patient-friendly summary from the visit for you to review.
Clear explanations and handouts for the conditions you treat.
Tell the patient the tests from the visit came back normal, and when the next one is due.
Visit notes, letters, and patient summaries, drafted for your review.
Vero writes your notes and letters in the templates you choose, so you review instead of type.
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