Patient-Reported Understanding of Emergency Department Discharge Instructions, Satisfaction, and Acceptability of a...

Background Emergency department (ED) revisits remain a significant global challenge, with ineffective discharge communication identified as a key contributing factor. Limited patient understanding of discharge instructions may negatively impact satisfaction, adherence to post-discharge instructions, and subsequent revisits to the ED. Telemedicine-based follow-up has emerged as a potential strategy to address this gap. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate patient satisfaction and patient-reported understanding of ED discharge instructions and to assess the acceptability of a future telemedicine-based call-back program following ED discharge. Methods This prospective single-center observational pilot study was conducted at a tertiary ED in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Adult patients discharged with non-life-threatening conditions were systematically selected and surveyed using a structured questionnaire assessing patient-reported understanding of discharge instructions across four domains (diagnosis, ED care, post-discharge care, and return precautions), satisfaction, and preference for a future telemedicine-based call-back program. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA).  Results A total of 100 patients were included. Overall patient-reported understanding and satisfaction were generally high across the cohort. Among the understanding domains, return precautions demonstrated the highest proportion of fair (n=19, 19%) and poor (n=8, 8%) responses. Overall satisfaction was generally high, with the largest proportion of participants reporting being moderately satisfied (n=34, 34%), followed by extremely satisfied (n=31, 31%) and quite satisfied (n=19, 19%). A total of 78 participants (78%) reported that a call-back by an emergency healthcare professional should be implemented in the future. Participants who reported that a call-back should be implemented demonstrated slightly lower understanding scores despite similar satisfaction levels. Conclusion This pilot study demonstrated generally high patient-reported understanding of and satisfaction with ED discharge instructions, as well as strong patient interest in a future telemedicine-based call-back program. These findings provide baseline data for the subsequent Phase 2 study, which will assess whether a structured telemedicine-based call-back program is associated with changes in patient-reported understanding, patient satisfaction, and ED revisit rates.