In order to determine what inpatients transferred to another inpatient care facility know about their health problems, the motives for their transfer, and the level of agreement between patients and physicians on these issues, we conducted a semi-structured interview and a content analysis of the transfer letter of 64 consecutive patients transferred from an academic internal medicine unit to a related intermediate care internal medicine unit with a vocation of rehabilitation and psychosocial care. After a mean length of stay of 18.5 +/- 11 days, 31% of patients did not know their medical diagnosis and only 54% knew at least one motive of transfer they agreed with. Only 48.5% of patients described a motive of transfer which was also found in their transfer letter. Doctors and patients disagreed on a psychosocial motive for transfer for 15.5% of patients. 14% of patients were opposed to their transfer and 7% did not know why they were transfered. Finally 22% of transfer letters were not informative enough to allow comparison. We conclude that at the time of their transfer a large number of patients lack adequate information on their diagnosis and on the reasons for their transfer.