[The discharge summary in the transition between hospital and ambulatory care]

The hospital discharge letter is an important tool for transmitting medical information during the transition from inpatient to outpatient care. It promotes continuity of care, as well as quality and safety of medical care. Nevertheless, several challenges exist within a university hospital department that may make it difficult to transmit these documents in a timely manner. In this article we describe a project to improve the quality and rapidity of the transmission of discharge letters in our internal medicine department, composed of organizational and formative measures.