A report released by the American Medical Association describes recommendations for ambulatory practices to improve care transitions. The AMA report notes most of the work improving safety of patients transitioning in and out of the hospital have focused on the inpatient setting. However, patients returning to an outpatient setting that is uncoordinated with the inpatient setting creates confusion and potentially unsafe conditions. To address this problem, the AMA Center for Patient Safety convened a panel of experts that came up with 5 tasks and 5 principles necessary to support safe care transitions. These tasks are assessment, goal setting, supporting self-management, medication management and care coordination. These tasks should be guided by the principles of patient centeredness, collaboration, structure, iteration and flexibility.