Speak fast, use jargon, and don't repeat yourself: a randomized trial assessing the effectiveness of online videos to supplement emergency department discharge instructions.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Emergency department discharge instructions are variably understood by patients, and in the setting of emergency department crowding, innovations are needed to counteract shortened interaction times with the physician.

The researchers evaluated the effect of viewing an online video of diagnosis-specific discharge instructions on patient comprehension and recall of instructions.

Who Took Part

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

In this prospective, single-center, randomized controlled trial conducted between November 2011 and January 2012, the researchers randomized emergency department patients who were discharged with one of 38 diagnoses to either view (after they left the emergency department) a vetted online video of diagnosis-specific discharge instructions, or to usual care.

Patients were subsequently contacted by telephone and asked three standardized questions about their discharge instructions; one point was awarded for each correct answer.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got the intervention named in the title and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Using an intention-to-treat analysis, differences between groups were assessed using univariate testing, and with logistic regression that accounted for clustering on managing physician.

A secondary outcome measure was patient satisfaction with the videos, on a 10-point scale.

What Was Measured

The researchers evaluated the effect of viewing an online video of diagnosis-specific discharge instructions on patient comprehension and recall of instructions.

The subject headings attached to it are Emergency Service, Hospital, Internet, Patient Discharge, Patient Satisfaction and Video Recording.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2013 (PloS one), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.