Table 1.

Summary of Included Studies^*

Study	Study design	Study setting	Targeted TPAD type	Intervention	Unit of analysis	Primary outcome(s)	Outcome type	TPAD outcome
Balaban12	RCT	Medicine ward	Not described	Discharge summary template that includes TPADS, electronic transfer of discharge summary to primary care RN, RN discharge facilitator, PCP feedback on post-discharge care plan	Patient	1. No outpatient appointment within 21 days with either an MD or NP at the patient’s primary care site or with a relevant specialist 2. Readmission, for any reason, within 31 days to any of three study hospitals 3. Emergency department visits within 31 days for a problem related to the original admission in any of the 3 CHA hospitals 4. Failure to complete an outpatient workup recommended by a hospital doctor	Patient, process	No
Dalal13	RCT	Medicine ward	Microbiology, radiology, biochemistry, hematology	Automated email alerts to discharging physician of finalized test results	Physician	Self-reported awareness of TPAD results by discharging physician	Process	Yes
Dinescu14	POS	Medicine ward	Not described	Audit of discharge summary quality (including TPADs) and feedback loop	Patient	1. Admission composite score 2. Hospital course composite score 3. Discharge planning composite score 4. Post-discharge care composite score (including test results to follow-up)	Process	Yes
El-Kareh15	RCT	Medicine ward	Microbiology	Automated email alerts to discharging physician of finalized microbiology test results of possibly inadequately infections	TPAD	Documentation in the patient’s outpatient electronic chart of documentation of follow-up action within 3 days of the post-discharge microbiology result finalizing (note contains acknowledgement of the result, follow-up with the patient, or new antibiotic prescription)	Process	Yes
Graumlich16	RCT	Medicine ward	Not described	Electronic discharge template prompts discharging physician to enter TPADs	Patient	Proportion of patients readmitted at least once within 6 months after the index hospitalization	Patient	No
Kantor17	POS	Medicine ward	Microbiology, hematology, biochemistry, pathology	Electronic discharge application prompts to include TPADs from automatically generated list	TPAD, discharge summary	1. Proportion of pending studies communicated in discharge summary 2. Proportion of discharge summaries communicated all pending studies	Process	Yes
O’Leary18	POS	Medicine ward	Not described	Electronic discharge with template (including TPADs), automated distribution to PCP	DSCS, TPAD	1. Discharge Summary Completeness Score (DSCS) (out of 100) 2. Pending tests documented in discharge summary	Process	Yes
Cadwallader19	POS	Medicine ward	Not described	Electronic discharge template requires TPADs manual entry	Discharge summary	Percentage of tests with pending results that were documented in the discharge summaries	Process	Yes
Jack20	RCT	Medicine ward	Not described	Discharge template includes TPADs, discharge planner to arrange PCP follow-up	Patient	Total number of emergency department visits and readmissions per participant within 30 days of the index discharge	Patient	No

*Abbreviations: CHA, Cambridge Health Alliance; DSCS, Discharge Summary Completeness Score; MD, medical doctor; NP, nurse practitioner; PCP, primary care physician; POS, prospective observational study; RCT, randomized controlled trial; RN, registered nurse; TPAD, test pending at discharge