Patients are often overloaded with information in ER
Published: Thu, Jul. 24, 2008 12:00AM
Modified Thu, Jul. 24, 2008 01:35AM
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closeVisits to an emergency room are confusing and nerve-racking events.
That makes for a poor setting for good communication. In a study published this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, researchers found that 78 percent of patients do not fully understand the care and discharge instructions they receive in the ER.
Moreover, most people are unaware that they don't understand what the doctor has said. One woman interviewed by the researchers immediately after her discharge could not name her condition (pelvic inflammatory disease) and misunderstood most of the instructions for home and follow-up care.
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The problem, said principal investigator Kirsten Engel, of Northwestern University, is that doctors often deliver loads of complex information in a short amount of time. Patients are emotional and distracted, failing to listen carefully.
Engel said patients should take notes while in the ER, ask about anything they don't understand, have a friend or relative present to help absorb information and read discharge instructions carefully. "Make sure you are an aggressive consumer of your health care," she said. "You know you best. Ask questions."
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