Emergency department discharge instructions and patient literacy: A problem of disparity

Williams, Donald M; Counselman, Francis L.; Caggiano, Christopher

doi:10.1016/s0735-6757(96)90006-6

Cited by 89 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The majority of work in regard to improving discharge from the ED has focused on improving the actual discharge process itself, [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] and we find, perhaps as a result, that most patients do not report problems with this process. There is a small body of research exploring patient perspectives about inpatient readmissions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Return Visits to the Emergency Department: The Patient Perspective

Rising

Padrez

O’Brien

et al. 2015

Annals of Emergency Medicine

109

112

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Return Visits to the Emergency Department: The Patient Perspective

Rising

Padrez

O’Brien

et al. 2015

Annals of Emergency Medicine

109

112

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“…By using the Flesch Reading Ease Score, Williams et al [5] determined the average reading level of preprinted emergency department discharge instructions to be school grade level 9.8 (secondary school). Testing the reading grade levels of 82 of their emergency department patients demonstrated that 45% of patients would be unable to comprehend the discharge instructions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehension of Written Health Care Information in an Affluent Geriatric Retirement Community: Use of the Test of Functional Health Literacy

Benson

Forman²

2002

Gerontology

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Background: The comprehension of written health care information, e.g. prescription bottle labels or an informed consent form, impacts on communication with patients and their ability to understand medical procedures, as well as goals of therapy. Objective: To determine if the problem of literacy was present in a population of affluent Albuquerque retirement community dwellers. Methods: We administered the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHL) to 93 residents (71 women and 22 men), using a one-on-one directed examination conducted by one of the authors (J.G.B.). Results: The group studied had a mean age of >70 years, were not acutely ill, had no known loss of mental function, were better educated and had a high standard of living compared to national standards. However, 30% (95% confidence level) of our group were unable to adequately comprehend written information as measured by the TOFHL. The subgroup with poor comprehension (21 women and 7 men) had a mean age of 85 years (versus 82 years in the group with good comprehension) and a mean of 13 years (versus 15 years in the group with good comprehension) of formal education. Multivariate analysis was consistent with a negative effect of age (p = 0.04), a positive effect of years of formal education (p = 0.0005) and no effect of gender on the TOFHL score. Conclusion: Two recent studies, one in an emergency room setting and the other among Medicare enrollees, demonstrated similar results to ours. The high prevalence of poor comprehension in these groups should alert providers to the need to develop additional or different communication skills that can address the problem of poor reading comprehension across at least three diverse groups of people, with particular attention to those over the age of 65.

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“…[1,2] Direct assessments of patient and caretaker comprehension after ED discharge have demonstrated difficulties with recalling diagnoses and discharge instructions. [3, 4 5] These deficits have been shown to exist immediately after an ED visit and thus are not merely a function of people forgetting information over time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Information Prescriptions in Unstructured Environments

Bird

Boudreaux

Nichols

2010

2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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Informationexchange in the Emergency Department between patients and providers is critical for safe, effective patient care.The episodic nature of ED interactions between patients and doctors who are essentially unknown to each other makes this communication even more tenuous. The use of Information Prescriptions (InfoRx) is an attempt to provide patients with the opportunity to access evidence-based information via the internet. Our concept is to examine the impact of InfoRx in two common conditions, low back pain in adults and pediatric fever and attempt to measure patient preferences for site of delivery, content presentation and subsequent access of InfoRx from the ED. The results of this study may impact the type of information and method of delivery of healthcare information in the Emergency Department.

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Emergency department discharge instructions and patient literacy: A problem of disparity

Cited by 89 publications

References 11 publications

Return Visits to the Emergency Department: The Patient Perspective

Return Visits to the Emergency Department: The Patient Perspective

Comprehension of Written Health Care Information in an Affluent Geriatric Retirement Community: Use of the Test of Functional Health Literacy

Evaluating Information Prescriptions in Unstructured Environments

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