Patient Knowledge Lacking at Hospital Discharge

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The findings from a small study suggest that many patients leave the hospital not knowing their diagnosis or the names of the medications they have been prescribed, let alone the purpose of these drugs and their side effects.

"All methods that enhance patient's understanding of his or her discharge treatment plan focus on one central aspect -- proper communication," study co-author Dr. Eli A. Friedman, from the State University of New York in Brooklyn, said in a statement. "Although not all patients are noncompliant because of poor communication, this is probably the leading cause of noncompliance."

The researchers surveyed 47 consecutive patients who were discharged from a teaching hospital in New York. The subjects were asked for their discharge diagnosis and for the names, purposes, and side effects of their prescribed medications. Three subjects were excluded from the survey due to language barrier issues and one was excluded due to disorientation.

Only 42 percent of patients knew their diagnosis, the investigators report in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

On average, patients were prescribed 3.89 medications on hospital discharge. Just 28 percent of patients were able to correctly state the names of all medications received. Thirty-seven percent knew the purpose of all medications given, and only 14 percent could list the common side effects of their medications.

In a statement, Dr. Edward Rosenow, a Mayo Clinic physician and author of a related editorial, said, "I collectively refer to the issues contributing to misunderstanding and medication noncompliance as the 'sixth vital sign,' because in many ways they are as important as the well-known four vital signs and the new fifth vital sign of pain."

SOURCE: Mayo Clinic Proceedings, August 2005.