Summary

Despite improvements in acute care and survival following acute coronary syndrome (ACS) hospitalization, readmission remains common. In response, individual institutions have begun to develop their own protocols to reduce variability of care and readmission rates. This review provides approaches for developing and implementing institutional discharge protocols for continuity of care for ACS patients and describes key components of the discharge protocol. Furthermore, specific objectives of the protocol, including medication adherence, patient education, enabling access to cardiac rehabilitation, and clinical follow-up, as well as consideration of patient-specific needs, are discussed with the aim of providing successful continuity of care.