Patient letter from treatment notes

Nothing here is clinical advice, and nothing here should touch identifiable patient information.

Use this workflow to produce a plain-language letter from treatment notes already approved for communication. It is for medical secretaries, patient administration teams and clinical support staff drafting the document for clinical review.

Work only with a de-identified training copy or an approved secure organisational process. Do not paste names, dates of birth, addresses, record numbers, contact details, or other identifiable patient information into the model. This workflow does not provide clinical advice. The responsible clinical team approves the final letter and decides what the patient must be told.

1. Prepare the approved source pack

Collect the material before drafting. Use the final approved treatment notes, not rough clinic notes or a verbal account. Create a de-identified working brief with placeholders such as [PATIENT NAME], [APPOINTMENT DATE] and [CLINIC CONTACT NUMBER].

Your brief should contain these fields:

• Letter purpose: for example, post-appointment summary, procedure preparation, follow-up plan, or cancellation notice.
• Approved message: the points the clinical team has confirmed can be sent.
• Required next steps: each action, who takes it, and any approved timing or deadline.
• Required safety or contact wording: use your organisation's approved wording exactly where supplied.
• Appointment details: placeholders for date, time, location, format and clinician, if applicable.
• Contact details: the approved service name, phone number, email address or booking route.
• Attachments or enclosures: forms, information sheets, maps or leaflets that the letter must mention.
• Sign-off route: the named role or team that must review the draft.

Remove anything the patient does not need to know. In particular, exclude internal discussion, unconfirmed plans, staff opinions, system notes, and shorthand that only makes sense inside the service.

2. Set the letter structure

Tell the model to use a fixed structure. This makes letters easier for patients to scan and easier for your team to check.

Use this order:

1. Date and patient placeholders.
2. A clear subject line, such as Your next appointment or Information following your visit.
3. A short opening that says why the team is writing.
4. The approved summary in plain language.
5. A What you need to do next section.
6. Appointment or booking details, where relevant.
7. A Contact us section.
8. Any approved urgent-contact or safety wording supplied by the clinical team.
9. Closing, sender role and service name.

Keep one action per bullet in the next-steps section. Put the action first: Please complete the enclosed form, not An enclosed form should be completed by you. Preserve the meaning of approved terms, but expand unexplained abbreviations and replace internal jargon where an approved plain-language alternative is available.

3. Give the drafting instruction

Paste the de-identified brief and ask for a draft, not a clinical interpretation. State the rules the output must follow.

You can use this instruction:

Draft a patient-facing letter using only the approved information below. Keep placeholders exactly as written. Do not add medical explanations, recommendations, dates, times, contact details or next steps that are not in the source. Use short paragraphs, clear headings and bullets for actions. Mark missing required information as [CLINICAL QUERY: describe what is missing]. Keep any supplied safety wording unchanged. Return the letter only.

Then add the source under Approved information:. If the output is too long, ask the model to shorten wording without removing any required point. Do not ask it to make the letter "more reassuring" unless the clinical team has approved the revised wording.

The model behaviour and available features can vary. Check the current handling guidance and product documentation before adopting a process in your service: xAI documentation overview.

4. Check the draft against the source

Read the draft beside the approved treatment notes. Do not rely on a fluent letter as evidence that it is accurate. Check each statement, action and contact route.

If you find this	Do this before handover
A detail absent from the source	Delete it or raise a clinical query.
A clinical term has been simplified	Confirm that the meaning has not changed.
An action has no owner or timing	Ask the clinical team to clarify it.
A contact route differs from the approved directory	Replace it with the approved route.
A placeholder remains in the draft	Complete it in the authorised system or flag it.

Check these points in order:

1. Confirm the letter purpose matches the approved brief.
2. Match every clinical statement to a source statement.
3. Confirm all required next steps are present, practical and in the right order.
4. Check dates, times, locations, contacts and attachments against the authorised source.
5. Confirm that mandated wording is unchanged.
6. Read the letter as a patient would. Can they identify what happens next without interpreting a paragraph?
7. Check that no identifiable patient information was used in the model interaction.

5. Hand over for clinical and administrative sign-off

Send the draft through your normal secure document workflow. Label it clearly as Draft for clinical approval until the authorised reviewer has signed it off. Include a short query list rather than burying uncertainty in tracked changes.

For example:

• [CLINICAL QUERY: confirm whether the patient should arrange the follow-up appointment or wait for contact from the service.]
• [ADMIN QUERY: confirm the current direct booking number.]
• [CLINICAL QUERY: confirm whether the attached information sheet is required.]

After approval, insert the real patient and appointment details only in your approved patient record, correspondence or document-management system. Apply your local checks for recipient, address, communication preference, accessible format, interpreter needs and attachments before sending.

When the workflow does not work

Stop the draft if the notes conflict, the plan is provisional, the required patient message is unclear, or the standard wording is missing. Return the issue to the responsible clinical team with the exact sentence or field that needs a decision. Do not produce a best guess.