Most don't understand ER doctor's order

[flashl]

CHICAGO, July 18 (UPI) -- Most patients discharged from the emergency department of a U.S. hospital don't fully understand their doctors' discharge instructions, researchers said.

Researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago found 78 percent of patients do not fully understand the care and discharge instructions they receive in the emergency department. In addition, 80 percent of the time, patients weren't aware they didn't realize they didn't understand the instructions.

...

Researchers assessed 138 patients and two caretakers from Ann Arbor, Mich., in four categories of comprehension: diagnosis and cause, emergency department care, post-emergency department care and return instructions.

The study, published online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, found that 51 percent did not understand fully what they were told in two or more categories. More than one-third of the comprehension deficiencies involved patients' understanding of post-emergency department care, while 15 percent involved diagnosis and cause.

UPI

[Sal Minella]

1. I remember a child who died after a routine circumcision because he bled to death. The parents

waited two days and two nights before bringing him to the emergency room.

I've always wondered if the circumcisor told them "The bleeding should stop within four to eight hours" and they thought he said "forty-eight hours" so waited that long before bringing him back.....

[Crunchy Frog]

5. I guess maybe there are some good reasons

for not performing elective cosmetic surgery on newborns. :shrug:

[Horse with no Name]

6. Luckily the newborn nursery gave them written instructions that they could have referred to

since THAT is the standard for newborn care.
However, you simply cannot fix stupidity in parents who refuse to read the instructions (even though they sign them) or don't have enough sense to pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel.
Routinely, in my job, I take premature babies out in the middle of the night and tell the parents to feed their newborn. I drill it into their heads that premature babies HAVE to eat every 3 hours since they have no reserves. I even draw lines on the bottles and show them how much their preemie needs to eat. I tell them that if they don't feed within the first 15 minutes, please call so that we can assist them in feeding their infant.
Two hours later, I go out to check and they decided to let the baby sleep because they were sleeping too peacefully and they didn't want to wake them.
Ironically, a baby lapsing into a coma from low blood sugar looks like it is sleeping peacefully as well. Amazing how that can work.

[liberalhistorian]

2. This is why it's really important to at least try to have

someone with you if you have to go to the ER, because you're often too sick or in pain to truly understand your instructions. I know a couple times when I had to go, if my mom or a good friend hadn't been with me I wouldn't have understood anything.

[Longhorn]

4. This is so true.

However, I had my mother and my husband with me when we visited with the gynecologist at MD Anderson and NEITHER of them remembered what she said! I think you need someone with you who doesn't care as much as a spouse or parent because they can be just as upset as the patient! :)

[kickysnana]

3. Dad thought the doctor said he had lung cancer three weeks ago.

What the doctor said is it was most likely pneumonia but it was important he follow up with his doctor especially if he didn't get better or got worse because there was a slight possibility it could then be cancer. 82 year old Dad hears about 30% of what is said but will not ask for someone to repeat or write it down.

Luckily my sister was there with him so when he told the youngest of us four days later that he had lung cancer she got on the phone and we got our brother, who he hears 40% of the time to go re-explain it to him. We then called his doctor and told them they had to be sure he understood what they were saying. Either write it down or have him repeat it back or there could be a tragedy.

Good thing he didn't run right out and marry the town floozy and blow the rest of his retirement money!

(Now I would have figured it out if three days after treatment was started if I golfed nine holes (instead of 18), like he did (Belgians are tough), that I probably didn't have cancer. But Dad takes things at face value and if the doctor said he had cancer he had cancer.)