Discharge instructions are the plain-language plan a patient takes home from the hospital or the emergency department: what was wrong, which medicines to take and when, how to look after themselves, the warning signs, and who to call. Some hospitals call it an after-hospital care plan. Copy the free template, see an emergency department visit for a forearm fracture and a hospital stay for a COPD flare-up written the way the patient reads them, and check what goes in each part.
Blank discharge instructions template
FreeDISCHARGE INSTRUCTIONS [Hospital name and department or unit] [Phone for questions about this stay, and its hours] Name: [Patient's full name] Date of birth: [Date] You came in on: [Date, and whether through the emergency department] You went home on: [Date and time] Looked after by: [Doctor or nurse practitioner, and the nurse who went over these instructions] Going home to: [Home alone, home with family, or home with nursing visits] Language: [Language of these instructions, and the interpreter used, or none] WHAT HAPPENED IN HOSPITAL Main problem: [What you were treated for, in everyday words, then the medical name] What we did: [The main tests, treatments, or procedures, a sentence or two each] How you are now: [What is better, and what will take longer to settle] YOUR MEDICINES FROM TODAY Start: [New medicine, what it is for, how much, how often, and the last day if it is a short course] Change: [Medicine, the dose you took before, and the dose from now on] Stop: [Medicine, and the reason, so you don't start it again] Same as before: [Your usual medicines that did not change] Last dose given here: [Each medicine given before you left, and the time] Next dose due: [Each medicine, and the time to take it at home] Prescriptions: [The pharmacy they were sent to, or printed, and how many days they last] LOOKING AFTER YOURSELF AT HOME Activity: [What you can do now, what to avoid, and until when] Driving: [When you can drive again, and why not yet] Work or school: [When you can go back, and whether a note was given] Eating and drinking: [Any changes, or eat and drink as usual] Cast, wound, drain, or device: [How to keep it clean and dry, what normal looks like, and when it comes off] Bathing: [When you can shower or bathe] WARNING SIGNS Call [the clinic, the unit, or your family doctor] within 24 hours if: [Signs that need advice soon] Come back to the emergency department now if: [Signs that can't wait for an appointment] Call 911 if: [Signs of a life-threatening problem] APPOINTMENTS AND RESULTS Booked for you: [Clinic or clinician, date, time, and place] You need to book: [Who to call, the number, and by when] Referrals: [The service we referred you to, why, and when they will contact you, or none] Results still to come: [Each test, who will check it, and how you will hear] If you haven't heard by: [Date, and the number to call] WHO TO CALL Questions about this stay: [Unit or department phone, and its hours] After hours: [Nurse line, or the emergency department] Your family doctor: [Name and phone, and whether a copy of your discharge summary was sent, or who follows up if you have none] BEFORE YOU LEAVE Gone over by: [Name and role, and who else was there] You told us back: [The key points the patient explained in their own words] Given to you: [Printed instructions, leaflets, equipment, or supplies] Signed: [Patient or caregiver, or spoken agreement and who witnessed it]
Use it for
Each one follows the template. Use them to judge how much detail every part needs.
Emergency department, 58-year-old woman after a fall on an icy step, with her husband; copy to her family doctor
You slipped on an icy step on Monday morning, November 9, 2026, and landed on your outstretched right hand. The X-ray shows a break in the radius, the larger of the 2 forearm bones, just above your wrist. The medical name is a distal radius fracture. The broken ends have stayed in a good position, so they did not need to be moved. We put your arm in a temporary plaster cast from below your elbow to your knuckles, held on with a bandage. It leaves room for swelling. You went home at 6:40 p.m.
For pain: acetaminophen, 1,000 mg every 6 hours, no more than 4,000 mg in 24 hours. If you need more, add ibuprofen, 400 mg every 8 hours with food, for up to 5 days. Last dose given here: acetaminophen 1,000 mg at 3:15 p.m. Next dose due: acetaminophen at 9:15 p.m. You had no ibuprofen here, so you can take your first dose at home with supper. Many cold and flu medicines also contain acetaminophen; don’t take them as well. Same as before: your levothyroxine. Nothing was stopped.
Keep it dry. To shower, cover it with 2 plastic bags taped at the top, or take a bath with your arm resting outside the tub. Plaster takes about 2 days to harden fully, so don’t lean on it or rest it on hard edges. Never push anything inside the cast to scratch, and don’t trim it or pull out the padding.
For the next 3 days, keep your hand higher than your heart: on 2 pillows when you sit or lie down, and in the sling when you walk. Every hour while you’re awake, wiggle your fingers and thumb 10 times, and bend and straighten your elbow, so they don’t get stiff. We cut off your rings. Don’t put them back on until the swelling is gone. Don’t drive while your arm is in a cast: you can’t steer or brake safely with one hand. No lifting with your right hand. A note for work this week was given; the fracture clinic will tell you when you can go back.
Come back to this emergency department right away, day or night, if your fingers are numb or tingling and it doesn’t stop after 30 minutes with your hand raised; your fingers turn pale, blue, or cold; the pain keeps getting worse even with your pain medicine and your hand raised; it hurts badly to move your fingers, or you can’t move them; or the cast feels too tight. Don’t wait for your clinic visit. Call the fracture clinic during office hours if the cast cracks, gets wet or soft, rubs your skin, or smells bad.
Fracture clinic: the clinic will call you by Wednesday, November 11, to book a visit for Monday, November 16, with a new X-ray. If you haven’t heard by Thursday at noon, call the clinic number on the front of this page. X-ray report: a radiologist will also read your X-rays by tomorrow. If their report changes the plan, the emergency department will call you. Family doctor: a broken wrist from a fall at standing height after age 50 can be a sign of thinning bones. Book a visit in the next 4 weeks to ask about a bone density test. A copy of these instructions goes to your family doctor today.
Gone over by your emergency nurse, with your husband there. You told us back: keep the hand up on pillows, next acetaminophen at 9:15 tonight, come back straight away if the fingers go numb or pale, and the clinic will call you by Wednesday. Given to you: these instructions, a sling, and a cast care leaflet.
Medical ward, 71-year-old man going home after 3 nights, with his daughter; discharge summary sent to his family doctor
You came to the emergency department on Friday, November 6, 2026, more short of breath than usual, with more phlegm that had turned green. This was a flare-up of your COPD, the long-term lung disease that narrows your airways. The medical name is an acute exacerbation of COPD. A cold virus most likely set it off; your chest X-ray showed no pneumonia. We gave you breathing medicines through a mask, a steroid called prednisone, an antibiotic, and oxygen for the first 2 days. You went home on Monday, November 9, at 11:30 a.m.
You can walk the length of the ward and up 1 flight of stairs, a little out of breath, as you could before. Your oxygen level was 93% sitting and stayed at 90% or above while you walked the hallway without extra oxygen. You don’t need oxygen at home. You may feel tired for 2 to 3 weeks.
Start: umeclidinium with vilanterol, a new once-a-day inhaler with 2 long-acting medicines that keep your airways open. Take 1 puff every morning. Stop: tiotropium, your old once-a-day inhaler. The new one has the same kind of medicine in it, so taking both would be too much. Finishing: prednisone 40 mg with breakfast; your last dose is tomorrow morning, Tuesday, November 10, then stop. You don’t need to cut it down slowly. Doxycycline 100 mg twice a day, with a full glass of water, staying upright for 30 minutes after, and not within 2 hours of milk, antacids, or iron pills; your last dose is tomorrow evening. Same as before: salbutamol, also called albuterol, your blue reliever inhaler, 2 puffs through your spacer when you’re short of breath, and your amlodipine. Last doses given here: prednisone and the new inhaler at 8 a.m., doxycycline at 9 a.m. Next dose due: doxycycline at 9 tonight. Prescriptions: sent to your pharmacy; the new inhaler lasts 30 days.
1. Slide the cover open until it clicks. Don’t shake it. 2. Breathe out fully, away from the mouthpiece. 3. Close your lips firmly around the mouthpiece and take one long, steady, deep breath in. 4. Hold your breath for 3 to 4 seconds, or as long as is comfortable, then breathe out slowly. 5. Slide the cover closed. If you open and close the cover without breathing in, that dose is lost; don’t take another until tomorrow. Prednisone can make it hard to sleep and make you hungry or on edge. That settles within a few days of the last dose.
Walk every day, a little further each day. Feeling out of breath when you walk is expected; stop, and breathe out slowly through pursed lips until it settles. Eat smaller meals more often if a full plate leaves you breathless. You can drive once your breathing is back to your usual. You stopped smoking in 2019; keep your home smoke-free. You had your flu shot here on November 7. Ask your family doctor about the pneumonia and RSV vaccines.
Call your family doctor the same day, or the nurse line after hours, if you’re more short of breath than today for 2 days in a row; you need your blue inhaler more often than every 4 hours; your phlegm turns green or yellow again, or there is more of it; you have a fever of 38 °C, 100.4 °F, or higher; or your ankles swell. Call 911 if you’re too short of breath to speak in full sentences, your lips or fingertips turn blue or grey, you have chest pain, you’re confused or very drowsy, or your blue inhaler gives no relief.
Booked for you: your family doctor, Monday, November 16, at 10:40 a.m. Bring all your inhalers and your spacer. Referral: we referred you to the pulmonary rehabilitation program, an exercise and breathing class twice a week for 8 weeks. They will call you to book a first visit. If you haven’t heard by Monday, November 23, call the ward number on the front of this page. Result still to come: your phlegm test. The ward team will check it by Wednesday and call you only if you need a different antibiotic. Your family doctor gets a copy.
Gone over by your ward nurse, with your daughter there. You showed every step of the new inhaler. You told us back: last prednisone tomorrow morning, stop the old inhaler, and call your family doctor the same day if you need the blue inhaler more than every 4 hours. Given to you: these instructions, a written COPD action plan, and a list of all your medicines.
Who the instructions are for, when they came in and went home, where they are going, and the language. Patients keep this page for weeks, and the next clinician they see often reads it too.
Avoid: Leaving off the time of discharge. The next dose, any limit for 24 hours after sedation, and the call-back window all count from it.
The stay in a few plain sentences: what was wrong, what was done, and how the patient is now. It tells them why the rest of the page matters.
Avoid: Pasting the hospital course. “AECOPD, improved with nebs and steroids” is written for the chart, not for the kitchen table.
Every medicine change on its own line, and the timing that links the doses given in hospital to the doses at home. Medicine mix-ups are among the most common problems after discharge.
Avoid: Leaving out the dose given in the department. A patient who had acetaminophen at 3 p.m. and takes more at 4 p.m. has doubled up without knowing it.
What the patient can and can’t do, and how to care for any cast, wound, drain, catheter, or device, each with an end date.
Avoid: “Take it easy” or “light activity.” Say what to avoid, and until when.
The signs that something is going wrong, for this problem, grouped by where to go and how fast.
Avoid: “Return if worse.” Name each sign and say where to go, or the patient may wait for the clinic appointment.
Every follow-up, who books it, and every result that will come back after the patient has gone home.
Avoid: “Follow up with the fracture clinic.” Say whether the clinic will call or the patient must, and by when.
The numbers for questions, and a record that the plan was understood before the patient walked out.
Avoid: Handing over the page at the door. Go over it while the patient can still ask, with whoever will help at home.
Write down every dose given before the patient left, with the time, and when the next one is due. Without it, patients double up on pain medicine or miss the evening dose of a new antibiotic.
List the signs that matter for this problem, and say where to go for each: the clinic in office hours, the emergency department now, or 911. A vague “come back if worse” leaves the patient waiting for the next appointment.
Many patients assume the hospital booked every appointment. Write “booked for you” or “you need to book,” the number to call, and a date to call if no one has been in touch.
A culture, a radiologist’s report, or a biopsy often comes back after the patient has gone. Name who checks it, how the patient will hear, and say plainly if they will only hear when it changes the plan.
“NWB,” “PRN,” and “POP backslab” mean nothing at home. Aim for about a grade 6 reading level: short sentences, everyday words, and the plain name before the medical one.
Instructions handed over while the patient is in pain, drowsy, or getting dressed rarely stick. Go over them sitting down, with the person who will help at home, and ask for the plan back in the patient’s own words.
Vero Scribe drafts discharge instructions in your template from the discharge conversation, 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 print for the patient.
The written plan a patient takes home when they leave the hospital or the emergency department. It says what they were treated for in plain words, which medicines to start, change, or stop and when the next dose is due, how to look after themselves, the warning signs and where to go, the appointments and who books them, the results still to come, and who to call.
Start with what happened, in two or three everyday sentences. Then the medicines, with the time of the last dose given and when the next one is due. Then care at home, the warning signs grouped by where to go, the appointments and results with who acts on each, and a phone number. Write at about a grade 6 reading level, go over it with the patient and whoever helps at home, and ask them to tell you the plan back.
An after-visit summary is for a clinic, telehealth, or urgent care visit, with no hospital stay. A discharge letter goes from the hospital team to the family doctor, clinician to clinician. Discharge instructions are the patient’s own plan for leaving the hospital or the emergency department, with the doses given before they left, any cast, wound, drain, or device, and the results that come back after they have gone.
The parts are the same; the weight differs. After an emergency visit, the instructions are usually shorter and lean on warning signs, the next dose of anything given in the department, and follow-up the patient may have to book themselves. After a hospital stay, they carry more medicine changes, equipment or home care, referrals, and results still pending.
Usually, yes. Hospitals use different names for the patient’s own going-home plan: discharge instructions, an after-hospital care plan, or a going-home plan. Whatever the name, it should cover the same things, and this template works under any of them.
About grade 6: short sentences, everyday words, the plain name before the medical one, numbers the patient can act on, and no abbreviations. Teach-back means asking the patient to explain the plan back in their own words, such as “Tell me when you’ll take your next dose.” Go over again whatever they missed, and note what they said.
Yes. Copy it, or download it as a Word or text file. No account needed.
Yes. Vero Scribe drafts discharge instructions in your template from the discharge conversation, with the patient’s consent, or from your dictation, in plain words and in any of 60+ languages. You review and edit every section, go over the medicines and warning signs with a qualified interpreter where needed, 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 plain-language instructions from the encounter for you to review.
Plain-language explanations, teach-back, and personal handouts.
ED notes and discharge documents, drafted for your review.
Admissions, daily rounds, and discharge documents, 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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