High-quality and timely discharge summaries are essential for effective clinical handovers during transitions of care. Recognising the critical patient safety risks at hospital discharge, the Guidelines have been revised from the previous 2017 edition to include updated recommendations.
2025Guide, user guide or guidelines
The Guidelines aim to ensure a nationally consistent approach to achieving accurate, concise, and well-designed electronic discharge summaries (EDS). They provide evidence-based recommendations on the structure, format, and content of EDS, which must be supported by robust clinical governance, training, and evaluation processes. The development of the Guidelines was also informed by extensive stakeholder consultation across acute care and primary care settings.
The Commission would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of stakeholders who participated in workshops, surveys, and shared implementation insights.
How have the Guidelines changed?
- Re-ordering of EDS components – ‘Recommendations’ for follow up by primary care provider now moved towards the top of the EDS
- Incorporating Principles for safe, high-quality transitions of care
- Greater alignment with national digital health initiatives
- National Healthcare Identifiers, SNOMED CT-AU (including AMT), Australian Core Data for Interoperability
- Additional guidance for health services and clinicians to distinguish between responsibilities
- Clarification of components that were reported as ambiguous (e.g. alerts)
More information
Visit safetyandquality.gov.au/EDSS or email acsqhcdigitalhealth@safetyandquality.gov.au