What's a good AI prompt for writing a patient after-visit summary in plain language

The Prompt

Rewrite the following visit notes as an after-visit summary a patient with no medical background can understand.

Visit notes: [paste raw clinical notes]
Diagnosis/assessment: [plain description]
What changed today: [meds started/stopped, tests ordered, etc.]
Next steps: [follow-up appointment, when to call, red-flag symptoms]

Use short sentences and everyday words instead of medical jargon — define any term you can't avoid. End with a clear "when to call us" section.

Why This Prompt Works

After-visit summaries are one of the most-read pieces of patient communication, yet clinical notes translate poorly into plain language on their own — patients who don’t understand discharge instructions are measurably more likely to miss follow-up care. Asking the model to define unavoidable jargon and separate “what changed” from “what to do next” produces a document patients actually act on rather than skim past.

How to Customize It

Have clinical staff supply the actual notes and next-step details rather than letting the model infer them — accuracy of the medical content is the clinician’s responsibility; the prompt only handles translation into plain language.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t skip the red-flag/when-to-call section — it’s the part most likely to get cut for brevity, but it’s also the part most tied to patient safety.

Bottom Line

A good after-visit-summary prompt treats jargon removal as the model’s job and clinical accuracy as the clinician’s — reviewed by a clinician before it reaches the patient, every time.