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Preparing Outpatient Facilities for a New Era in Discharge Communication

What healthcare leaders need to know about the new CMS measure: Information Transfer PRO–PM, and how they can prepare.

physician explaining contents of the surgery folder to a patient post procedure

HEALTHCARE ARTICLE

The Quality of Communication Measure

For years, outpatient surgery centers and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) have focused on surgical efficiency and operational excellence. But now, a new measure is shifting the spotlight to something often overlooked: the quality of communication patients receive at discharge.

Developed by CMS in partnership with Yale New Haven Health Services Corporation – CORE, the Information Transfer Patient-Reported Outcome Performance Measure (PRO–PM) is a transformative step toward ensuring that every patient leaves outpatient care with a clear understanding of how to manage their recovery.

Why This Measure Was Created

Patients discharged from HOPDs and ASCs are often sent home without detailed, personalized instructions about their procedures or in many cases, instructions they never received or fully understand. Key information can be lost or misunderstood as various points of the patient’s discharge process. Key details such as:

  • The name or description of the procedure performed
  • Clear instructions for managing medications, wound care, or physical activity
  • Information in a format they can actually understand and follow

This lack of the patent’s understanding can have serious consequences. According to a 2019 analysis by the Joint Commission, preventable communication failures are some of the key driving factors to patients not having a successful post discharge experience.1 And in outpatient settings, where patients are sent home quickly, often after general anesthesia, these communication gaps are even more concerning and harder to overcome.

The Primary Objective: Better Communication, Safer Recoveries

At its core, the Information Transfer PRO–PM is about more than compliance. It’s about ensuring that patients fully understand how to care for themselves after an outpatient procedure. The goal is to evaluate and improve how effectively outpatient facilities communicate discharge instructions to patients aged 18 and older who are discharged after stays of fewer than two nights.

The survey underpinning this measure spans the entire patient journey, from pre-op scheduling to the moment of discharge, and is organized into three key domains:

discharge checklist icon

Applicability

Were the discharge instructions relevant and specific to the procedure?

improve medication communication

Medications

Did the patient understand what to start, stop, and adjust post-procedure?

Daily Activities

Was the patient given clear guidance on movement restrictions, wound care, and recovery milestones?

When done well, this communication drives significant downstream benefits:

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  • Improved Recovery Experiences – Patients who know what to expect and know the next steps to take, feel more confident managing their care at home.
  • Reduced Readmission Rates / Fewer Post-Discharge Complications – With clear instructions on warning signs, patients are better equipped to recognize problems early and seek timely help.
reduce readmission rates, ed visits
  • Reduced Follow-Up Calls and ED Visits – When patients receive clear, organized instructions that outline not only their care plan but also who to contact and where to go for specific concerns, they feel more confident managing their recovery. This helps reduce unnecessary calls and emergency department visits, ensuring your team’s time is focused where it’s truly needed.”
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  • Higher Satisfaction and Trust – Clear, complete communication is one of the top drivers of patient satisfaction, which in turn supports a facility’s reputation and HCAHPS or OAS CAHPS scores.
  • Better Health Outcomes – When patients follow their medication regimen, activity guidelines, and care instructions correctly, they experience fewer setbacks and better long-term results.

In short, effective discharge communication doesn’t just improve compliance with CMS, it directly improves outcomes, patient safety, and satisfaction. That’s the real power behind the Information Transfer PRO–PM: raising the standard of care in outpatient recovery.

The Timeline: Why Now Is the Time to Prepare

Although mandatory reporting for the Information Transfer PRO–PM doesn’t begin until 2027, the groundwork is already underway. CMS has scheduled voluntary data reporting to start in 2026, giving healthcare facilities a short but crucial window to prepare.

On paper, it may sound like plenty of time. In practice, however, aligning teams, updating workflows, training staff, and implementing new patient communication strategies takes far longer than anticipated. Especially when done thoughtfully and at scale.

Why this matters now beyond just compliance:

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Reputational Risk

Once public reporting begins, performance scores will be visible to patients, insurers, and regulators. Falling behind could damage trust and patient volume.

Financial Penalties (and missed incentives)

Poor patient communication is directly tied to higher readmission rates, medication errors, and ED returns. All of which drive up costs and jeopardize value-based reimbursements.

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Operational Inefficiency

Without standardized discharge communication, staff spend more time fielding calls, clarifying instructions, and correcting misunderstandings, diverting resources from higher-value activities.

Conversely, getting ahead of the curve offers financial and clinical upside:

  • Reduce avoidable post-discharge complications that cost hospitals an estimated $16,300 per readmission (AHRQ)2
  • Improve patient retention, satisfaction, and outcomes. Key drivers of value-based care performance
  • Avoid last-minute overhauls that lead to rushed (and costly) implementation
  • Pilot and fine-tune discharge workflows without pressure
  • Train staff incrementally and consistently
  • Demonstrate early gains in outcomes and patient satisfaction
  • Build the infrastructure needed for long-term reporting success

The Information Transfer PRO–PM isn’t just another metric, it’s a clear signal that CMS is raising expectations for outpatient discharge communication. By acting early, HOPDs and ASCs can turn what might feel like a burden into a strategic advantage that benefits both patients and the bottom line.

The Financial Impact: Beyond Compliance

While implementing new measures often raises concerns about costs, the financial consequences of not improving discharge communication can be more damaging.

Costs of Poor Communication:

  • Adverse Drugs Events — now the cause of nearly 700,000 ED visits annually3, according to the CDC
  • Missed follow-up care — costing the U.S. healthcare system $150 billion per year4
  • Higher readmissions — costing the U.S. healthcare system over $17 billion per year5 (PubMed)
  • Reduced patient satisfaction — impacting reputation and reimbursement

Research supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that patients who clearly understand their post-hospital care instructions are 30% less likely to return to the hospital or visit the emergency department compared to those who are unclear about their care6. Similarly, a publication in the National Library of Medicine7 emphasized that using simplified, easy-to-understand written patient materials—such as printed discharge packets—can enhance patient comprehension about their care plans.

patient confused about medications

What’s at Stake If We Don’t Improve

The implications of poor discharge communication are not just financial, they’re clinical and reputational. When patients leave confused or under-informed, the risks rise:

  • Increased emergency department visits
  • Higher complication rates, especially among seniors and those with limited English proficiency
  • Loss of trust and engagement with care teams

In a healthcare landscape where patients now have more choices and greater expectations, the discharge process is no longer an afterthought, it’s a reputational touchpoint.

How to Prepare: Tools That Turn Communication into Compliance

To prepare for Information Transfer PRO–PM, HOPDs and ASCs need to adopt tools and workflows that support consistent, high-quality patient education. That includes:

  • Standardizing discharge communication processes
  • Training staff to deliver clear, understandable verbal instructions
  • Integrating printed, personalized materials tailored to the procedure and recovery plan
  • Implementing patient-friendly formats like folders with organizing dividers with engaging and universally understood visuals, and medication logs
  • Providing digital resources for patients who prefer visual learning

Studies reviewed by CORE show that patients benefit most from a combination of verbal and written education, delivered across multiple points in the care journey8. A structured format, such as personalized Patient Folders, offers staff a standard tool to use and patients (and their caregivers) a reliable, accessible reference at home.

Patient Folders: A Bridge, Not a Bandaid

Simply handing patients a stack of paperwork doesn’t guarantee understanding — or follow-through. Dense, disorganized printouts often are easy to misplace, overlooked, or misunderstood, especially when patients are groggy, overwhelmed, or managing follow-up care on their own. That’s where a thoughtfully designed, well-organized Patient Folder makes the difference.

When integrated into a broader communication strategy, Patient Folders become a central hub of communication before, during, and after discharge. They:

  • Ensure every patient receives the same core information in a clear, consistent format
  • Empower doctors and nurses to guide patients through instructions in a more approachable, step-by-step way
  • Give patients and caregivers an easy, quick-reference tool at home — instead of hunting through loose pages
  • Support both the verbal and written education model CMS has endorsed
  • Set teams up for better outcomes—smoother discharges, fewer follow-up calls, and more confident, informed patients once the program is live.

Taking steps now to adopt this approach helps set your team to meet compliance goals and deliver the kind of discharge experience patients actually understand and trust.

patient filling out medication tracking log post surgery

Final Takeaway: Patient Communication Is No Longer Optional

With Information Transfer PRO–PM, CMS is placing a measurable value on what patients understand, not just what was said or written. For HOPDs and ASCs, this is an opportunity to raise the standard of outpatient care, reduce avoidable risks, and improve patient trust.

Preparing now means less scrambling later. More importantly, it means every patient, regardless of literacy level, language, or recovery complexity, leaves with the knowledge they need to heal safely.

Because clear communication isn’t just good practice, it’s now a performance measure.

To support your team’s success with Information Transfer PRO–PM, consider implementing custom Surgery Folders as part of your discharge strategy. These folders can be tailored to your brand, your patients’ needs, and help convey all of the information they received in their discharge paperwork. Pre-assembled and ready to use, they help standardize the patient education process, reduce staff workload, and ensure every patient receives consistent, easy-to-understand information. To explore how customized Surgery Folders can help your facility improve outcomes, enhance patient understanding, and prepare confidently for what’s ahead, contact us today.

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