Many Patients Don't Understand Their Discharge Instructions

Researchers evaluated patients' understanding of written emergency department (ED) discharge instructions in a prospective study of 159 English-speaking adult patients who were discharged from an academic ED in Chicago with one of the following diagnoses: ankle sprain, back pain, head injury, kidney stone, or laceration. Patients were contacted by telephone 24 to 36 hours after ED discharge by nurses who conducted structured interviews focused on five domains of care: diagnosis, medication, home care, follow-up, and return to the ED.

All patients received individualized discharge instructions as well as commercially available instruction sheets specific to their discharge diagnosis. After reviewing transcripts of the recorded interviews, cha…