Table 3:

Themes and domains of the after-visit summary, patient perspectives

Theme	Domain
AVS use and applications	Summary of the visit
	Summary of general health and health care
	Quick reference for specific aspects of health care
	Reminder of health-specific tasks to complete
	Review with physician to clarify health and health care issues
	Share health information with family
	Share health information with other clinicians (eg, emergency department), pharmacists
	AVS disposition: disposed immediately, retained in a viewable area (eg, on refrigerator door), filed, carried with person (eg, purse, wallet)
Preferred AVS content	General features of content
	Too much information; amount of content should be limited
	AVS should be customizable for each patient
	Specific content elements, visit summaries
	Primary care physician contact information
	Primary care follow-up appointment date and time
	Appointment dates and times for specialty referrals and testing, and reasons for referrals
	Specific instructions made by the clinician, including treatment plan
	Goals of care
	Vital signs from the current visit
	Medication list including the purpose of medications, excludes separate lists of discontinued or newly started medications
	Specific content elements, health summaries
	Test results
	Immunization history
	Allergies (medication and other)
	Medical history
	Problem list
	Challenges to patient care (eg, language barriers, inability to swallow large pills)
Preferred AVS formatting	Use of lay language
	Larger font size
	Reduced density of information, sufficient white space
	Order of information: contact information, specific instructions, medications
Information on AVS is often inaccurate	Medication list
	Problem list
	Referral contact information
Privacy concerns	Concern about exposure of personal information, eg, history or diagnosis of depression, sexually transmitted diseases