Before you continue

A quick moment before you access the Executive Brief

To keep this experience useful (and not generic), we ask everyone to complete the After-Visit Clarity Signal™ first.

The brief is designed to build on your answers — helping you see where patient understanding may be holding, slipping, or simply hard to verify after the visit.

If you were redirected here, it simply means this step comes first — so the next one actually helps.

EXECUTIVE SYSTEMS REFLECTION • 2 MINUTES • OPS SNAPSHOT

After-Visit Patient Understanding Signal™

This is a systems-level reflection designed to reveal where understanding may decay after the visit — not an evaluation of staff or patient behavior.

How to answer: Choose the option that best matches how reliably your system performs today — across locations, teams, and patient complexity — not isolated best-case moments.
No names No staff grading Not a survey Designed for action
Start the 5 Questions If you’re already confident, this confirms it. If you’re unsure, this shows where to look first.

The 5-question signal

Select one option per question. We do not show a score. We simply reflect what your selections suggest about visibility, reliability, and where understanding may be slipping after the visit.

1

Next Steps Reliability

When patients leave a visit, how reliably do they understand what to do next and when—once they’re home?

2

At-Home Decision Readiness

If something comes up at home (symptoms, pain, uncertainty), how confident are you patients know what’s normal vs. what requires action?

3

Instruction Transfer

How confident are you that patients could accurately explain their instructions to a caregiver or family member after the visit?

4

Unspoken Confusion

In your view, how often do patients leave visits with questions they did not ask due to time pressure, discomfort, or power dynamics?

5

System Verification

Which statement best reflects your organization’s current approach to confirming patient understanding?

Optional: what feels least visible right now?

One sentence is enough. This is for internal reflection only.

Tip: if the honest answer is “we don’t know,” that’s not a failure — it’s the highest-value starting point.
Email Midline No score. No judgment. Just a clear next step.

Evidence-Based Rationale (Why this works)

This signal reflects evidence that post-visit comprehension can degrade after discharge due to complexity, stress, and information overload. Communication interventions at discharge are associated with improved adherence and fewer readmissions, and teach-back–based discharge education has demonstrated improvements in patient readiness and knowledge. Standardizing verification of understanding improves reliability without turning patient education into a punitive audit.

References (AMA Style)

  1. Becker C, Zumbrunn S, Beck K, et al. Interventions to improve communication at hospital discharge and rates of readmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(8):e2119346. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.19346.
  2. Oh S, Choi H, Oh EG, Lee JY. Effectiveness of discharge education using teach-back method on readmission among heart failure patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Patient Educ Couns. 2023;107:107559. doi:10.1016/j.pec.2022.11.001.
  3. Hemamali MJ, McGuire A, Seib C, Bonner A. Effectiveness of teach back for chronic kidney disease patient education: a systematic review. J Ren Care. 2024;50(2):92-103. doi:10.1111/jorc.12462.

Note: This page is intentionally non-evaluative. It creates a defensible leadership signal about system reliability without assigning blame or producing a public-facing score.