A discharge letter is the short letter the hospital team sends the family doctor when a patient goes home: why they came in, what changed, and what the family doctor needs to do next. Copy the free template, see a pneumonia with new atrial fibrillation example and an emergency appendectomy example, and check what goes in each part.
Blank discharge letter template
FreeDISCHARGE LETTER [Hospital name and unit] [Address] [Direct phone for the discharging team, and fax or secure email] Date: [Date sent] To: [Family doctor or primary care provider's name] [Practice, address, and fax or secure email] Copies to: [Patient, specialist following up, pharmacy, or home care, as agreed with the patient] Re: [Patient's full name] Date of birth: [Date] Hospital or medical record number: [Number] Admitted: [Date] Discharged: [Date] Discharged to: [Home, home with services, rehabilitation, or another facility] Dear [Dr. name or nurse practitioner name], [Patient name] was in our care from [admission date] to [discharge date] with [main diagnosis]. The full discharge summary is [attached, or in the shared record]. WHAT WE ASK YOU TO DO 1. [The first request: the test, check, or decision, and by when] 2. [The next request, with a date or time frame] 3. [Prescriptions to renew, and the date the supply runs out] REASON FOR ADMISSION AND DIAGNOSIS Reason for admission: [Presenting problem and how the patient arrived, in one sentence] Main diagnosis: [Diagnosis, and the key finding that confirmed it] New problems found: [New diagnoses or complications during the stay, or none] WHAT WE DID Treatment: [Main treatments and procedures, with dates, in two or three lines] Decisions made: [Changes to resuscitation status or goals of care, or none] Condition at discharge: [Symptoms, walking, and the vital signs, weight, or results to compare against] MEDICINE CHANGES Started: [Drug, dose, how often, why, and for how long] Changed: [Drug, old and new dose, and why] Stopped: [Drug, and why, so it isn't restarted] Allergies: [New allergies or reactions, labels removed, or no change] Supply given: [Days supplied for each new medicine, and who renews it] PENDING RESULTS AND FOLLOW-UP Pending: [Each test, the date sent, why, and who will read the result and tell the patient] Booked: [Clinics, tests, or calls already arranged, with dates] Referrals: [Services referred to and why, or none] WHAT THE PATIENT WAS TOLD Diagnosis and plan: [What we explained, to whom, and in what language] Warning signs: [Symptoms that should bring them back, and when to call 911 or go to the emergency department] Limits: [Driving, work, lifting, or bathing, and until when] Written information: [Discharge instructions, medicine list, or leaflets given] Please call [name and direct number] with any questions. Yours sincerely, [Your name, credentials, and role] [Attending physician, if different] [Signature]
Use it for
Each one follows the template. Use them to judge how much detail every part needs.
Medical ward to the family doctor, 5-day stay
Dear Dr. Mensah, this 78-year-old woman was on our medical ward from October 31 to November 5, 2026, with right lower lobe pneumonia, and we found new atrial fibrillation. She has gone home, with her daughter staying for the first week. The full discharge summary is attached.
1. Please see her within 7 days: chest, heart rate, blood pressure, and how she is managing apixaban. If her resting heart rate is above 110, increase bisoprolol to 5 mg daily. If her blood pressure is back above target, return amlodipine to 10 mg daily. 2. Blood count and creatinine in 4 weeks, around December 3, then creatinine at least every 6 months while she takes apixaban. Reduce apixaban to 2.5 mg twice daily if she comes to meet 2 of these: age 80 or over, weight 60 kg or less, creatinine 1.5 mg/dL (133 µmol/L) or more. 3. Renew apixaban and bisoprolol before her 30-day supply runs out on December 5. 4. She has never had a pneumococcal vaccine; please offer one once she has recovered.
Four days of cough, fever, and breathlessness; SpO2 88% on room air in the emergency department. Main diagnosis: community-acquired pneumonia, with right lower lobe consolidation on chest X-ray. New problem: atrial fibrillation at 128 per minute on the admission ECG, not known before, which stayed after the infection settled. CHA2DS2-VASc 4. TSH 1.8 mIU/L. Echocardiogram on November 3: LVEF 55 to 60%, moderately dilated left atrium, no mitral stenosis or other significant valve disease, so apixaban is suitable.
IV ceftriaxone with oral doxycycline, then oral amoxicillin-clavulanate with doxycycline from day 3; antibiotics finished on November 4 after 5 days. Oxygen stopped on day 3. Rate controlled with bisoprolol. Influenza vaccine given November 4. Decisions made: none; resuscitation status unchanged. At discharge: walking the ward with her cane, as before; SpO2 95% on room air while walking; resting heart rate 70s, irregular; BP 122/70; weight 66 kg; mild cough.
Started: apixaban 5 mg twice daily, long term, for stroke prevention. Full dose, as she meets none of the dose-reduction criteria: age 78, weight 66 kg, creatinine 1.0 mg/dL (88 µmol/L). Bisoprolol 2.5 mg once daily, for rate control. Changed: amlodipine from 10 mg to 5 mg daily, as her systolic pressure ran 100 to 110 after bisoprolol was added. Stopped: aspirin 81 mg daily, taken for primary prevention only, with no history of heart attack, stroke, or stents; stopped because of bleeding risk with apixaban. Naproxen bought for knee pain, stopped for the same reason; acetaminophen instead. Allergies: no change. Supply: 30 days of apixaban and bisoprolol.
Pending: none from the stay; blood and sputum cultures were final before discharge. Booked: a 48-hour Holter monitor on November 19, to check rate control at home. The cardiology clinic will read it, adjust bisoprolol if needed, and copy you. Atrial fibrillation clinic on December 10, to discuss whether rhythm control would suit her.
Explained atrial fibrillation, her stroke risk, and why apixaban, with her daughter present. Take it twice a day, about 12 hours apart, and never take two doses at once to make up for a missed one. Bleeding to report: black stools, blood in the urine, or coughing up blood. Go to the emergency department after any fall with a blow to the head. Call 911 for face drooping, arm weakness, or trouble speaking. No anti-inflammatory painkillers; acetaminophen for her knee. The cough may last a few weeks; come back if fever or breathlessness return. Given: a printed medicine list and an atrial fibrillation leaflet.
Surgical ward to the family doctor, 2-day stay
Dear Dr. Ruiz, this 29-year-old man, a line cook, had an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy on November 6, 2026, and went home on November 8. He is recovering well. The operation note and full discharge summary are in the shared record.
1. Please update his allergy record. His penicillin allergy label, from a childhood rash, was removed after a supervised amoxicillin challenge on November 7 with no reaction. 2. If he has a fever or worsening abdominal pain in the next 2 weeks, please send him to our emergency department rather than starting antibiotics. A collection needs a scan, and may need draining. 3. His work note runs to November 20; please review him if he isn’t ready to go back by then.
Twenty hours of pain that started around the navel and moved to the right lower abdomen, with vomiting and a temperature of 38.4 °C (101.1 °F). Main diagnosis: acute appendicitis, gangrenous and perforated at the tip, with local pus and no abscess. White count 15.6; CT on November 6 showed an inflamed appendix with free fluid. New problems: none.
Laparoscopic appendectomy on the night of November 6. Pus in the right lower abdomen washed out; no drain. IV ceftriaxone and metronidazole, then oral amoxicillin-clavulanate from November 7, for 4 days of antibiotics after surgery. At discharge: no fever for 36 hours, eating normally, bowels moving, walking freely, and the 3 small wounds clean and dry. Skin closed with absorbable stitches and glue, so there is nothing to remove.
Started: amoxicillin-clavulanate 875/125 mg twice daily, last dose the evening of November 10. Acetaminophen 1 g every 6 hours, no more than 4 g a day, for up to a week. Ibuprofen 400 mg every 8 hours with food, for up to 5 days. Oxycodone 5 mg every 6 hours if needed, for pain the other two don’t control: 6 tablets, no refills. Changed or stopped: none; he takes no regular medicines. Allergies: penicillin label removed, as above.
Pending: appendix histology, sent November 7, expected within 2 weeks. The surgical team will review it and phone him. If it shows anything other than appendicitis, we will see him in clinic and write to you. Booked: a phone call from the surgical nurse on November 13. No routine clinic visit.
Explained the operation and what we found. Walk several times a day. Shower from tomorrow, but no baths or swimming for 2 weeks. No lifting over 10 kg (22 lb) for 2 weeks; off work until November 20, with a work note given. Drive only when he can brake hard without pain and is no longer taking oxycodone. Come to the emergency department, or call the ward, for a fever over 38 °C (100.4 °F), pain that is getting worse rather than better, vomiting, a swollen abdomen, or redness or discharge from a wound. Given: written wound and pain instructions.
Who the patient is, the dates of the stay, the main diagnosis, and where the full record is, in two or three sentences.
Avoid: Opening with the presenting complaint and a page of history. The family doctor wants the outcome first.
The requests, numbered, near the top, so they are read even if nothing else is. This is the part that makes the letter worth sending.
Avoid: “Please follow up as appropriate.” Say what to check, by when, and what to do with the answer.
Why the patient came in and what it turned out to be, in a sentence or two each.
Avoid: Leaving a new diagnosis inside a paragraph. Give it its own line, so it reaches the practice’s problem list.
The main treatment in two or three lines, any decisions made, and how the patient was when they left.
Avoid: Retelling the stay day by day. That is the discharge summary’s job; the letter points to it.
Only what changed, each with its reason, so the family doctor doesn’t undo a change by accident.
Avoid: Pasting the full medicine list with no changes marked. The reader then has to compare it line by line with their own.
Tests whose results will arrive after the patient has gone, what is already booked, and who acts on each.
Avoid: A pending test with no name beside it. Results that come back after discharge are easy to miss, so say who reads each one.
The message the patient took home, so the family doctor can give the same one at the next visit.
Avoid: Leaving out limits set in hospital. The family doctor is often the next person asked for a work note or a driving answer.
A family doctor working through a stack of letters may stop after the first paragraph. Put what you ask them to do near the top, numbered, each with a date.
If the letter doesn’t say why a medicine was stopped, it is often restarted at the next refill. One line prevents it: “aspirin stopped: primary prevention only, bleeding risk with apixaban.”
Tests sent before discharge come back after the team has moved on. Name the person who will read each one and tell the patient, even when that is you.
Copying the hospital course into the letter makes it long enough to skip. Keep the letter to what changed and what is needed, and attach the summary for the detail.
Confirm the family doctor’s name and practice with the patient before discharge; old records keep old names. If the patient has no family doctor, say who will do each request, and give the letter to the patient.
Vero Scribe drafts the discharge letter in your template from the discharge conversation, with the patient’s consent, or from your dictation. You review and edit every section, then copy it into your record or export it to Word or PDF. Vero works in 60+ languages.
Open with the dates of the stay and the main diagnosis. Then list what you ask the family doctor to do, each with a date. Follow with the reason for admission, what was done, the medicine changes with reasons, pending results and who will read them, the follow-up booked, and what the patient was told. Keep it to one page, readable in a minute, and attach the full discharge summary.
The discharge summary is the full clinical record of the stay: the hospital course, results, procedures, and the complete medicine list, for the chart and any clinician who needs the detail. The discharge letter is the short message to the family doctor: what changed, what is pending, and what you ask them to do. Some hospitals send both; others put the letter’s requests at the top of the summary.
On the day the patient leaves, so it reaches the family doctor before the first follow-up visit. Send it the way your organization does: secure email, fax, or the shared record. If a request can’t wait, such as a blood test in 3 days, phone the practice as well.
Often, yes, and many hospitals give one routinely. Spell out abbreviations and write in plain clinical words, so it reads well to both. The patient’s own instructions, in everyday language, belong in an after-visit summary or discharge instructions.
Yes. Copy it, or download it as a Word or text file. No account needed.
The daily inpatient note: overnight events, trends, a plan by problem, and the daily checklist.
The full adult admission workup, with medication reconciliation, goals of care, and level of care.
Answer another team’s question: a focused history, a direct answer, and numbered recommendations.
The note that moves with the patient between units or hospitals: reason, course, problems, devices, and who follows what.
The record of a hospital stay: diagnoses, course by problem, procedures, medicine changes, pending results, follow-up, and code status.
The full record of the stay, with an example and a blank summary to copy.
A worked example and a quality checklist for the full summary.
Check the medicine list at discharge before you write the changes.
Inpatient notes and letters, drafted for your review.
Vero writes your notes and letters in the templates you choose, so you review instead of type.
No credit card required. 10 free actions every month.