Volume 27, Issue 131, January 2023

Assessing patients' comprehension of discharge instructions from the emergency department (ED) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia; do emergency department patients receive appropriate instructions before discharge?

Shaker Alsharif¹, Somayya Khan^2♦, Gaida Alzahrani², Ghaith Alhashmi³, Reeman Bahha³, Manal Alzahrani⁴

¹Emergency Medicine Consultant, Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
²MBBS, Alumnae of Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
³Medical Intern at Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
⁴MBBS, Alumnae of Al-Baha University, Al-baha, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
MBBS, Alumnae of Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Patients visiting the emergency departments (ED) must fully comprehend their discharge instructions and ensure that they fully understood their diagnoses and medical management. In this study, we aimed to estimate the factors influencing the comprehension of patients during their ED visits alongside reviewing the physicians' methods of delivering discharge instructions. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Makkah, Saudi Arabia targeting all patients visiting the ED in five of the largest hospitals in the city. The data was collected through an interview-based questionnaire via well-trained data collectors and supervised by the authors of this study. Results: A total of 425 individuals were interviewed; 80.70% of patients were satisfied about the understanding of the management they received in the ED. Females significantly comprehended their diagnosis more than male patients (OR= 1.432, p= 0.023,). Lower satisfaction rates with handling their concerns seriously in the ED were found among non-Arabic speakers (OR=0.91, p=0.008) and non-Saudi patients. Conclusions: Emergency medical staff may consider the factors discussed in this study to better enhance the patients care in ED settings; we found that those with poor education require more attention and those who do not speak Arabic as a main language were taken lightly in ED settings compared to Arabic speakers. The findings listed in this study may help catalyzing the improvement of patients' satisfaction in ED settings.

Keywords: Emergency department, Comprehension, Satisfaction, Discharge

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e41ms2751

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i131/e41ms2751

Published: 12 January 2023