P137: Emergency department discharge information sheets - a prescription for success?

Abstract

Introduction / Innovation Concept: Effective communication between health providers and patients is central to patient safety, health education and patient empowerment. Previous studies in the Calgary Zone demonstrated that less than fifty percent of emergency department patients thought discharge handouts communicated health information well and even fewer thought the handout information would aid them in care at home. A partnership between the Department of Information Design, Mount Royal University and the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Calgary, seeks to provide an innovative solution to this problem. Methods: The Calgary Zone Department of Emergency Medicine has partnered with the Mount Royal University Department of Information Design community service learning course. Information design students will work to develop infographics based on the “Choosing Wisely Alberta” Campaign Topics, with content expertise provided by the Department of Emergency Medicine. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: The five “Choosing Wisely Alberta” topics are: CT scans for adults with head injuries, CT scans to find Blood Clots in the lung, Imaging Tests for Headaches, Imaging tests for lower back pain, Treating Sinusitis. The target audience for the project will involve staff physicians, patients, public and government. Student involvement will direct their individual projects to these target audiences and will consider important issues such as non-English speaking patients, patients with low health-literacy (marginalized populations) and “super-users” of emergency departments, health policy (government and not-for-profit), physicians (emergency and primary care) and other health care workers. Infographics will be available for presentation at CAEP 2016. Conclusion: Information graphics will be used to facilitate clinician-patient discussions for empowered decision making, facilitate clinician-learner decisions based on evidence based guidelines, and improve knowledge translation for health system administrators and policy makers regarding appropriate emergency department resource allocation.