Readability of discharge summaries: with what level of information are we dismissing our patients?

American Journal of Surgery
Asad J ChoudhryMartin D Zielinski

Abstract

We assessed the health literacy of trauma discharge summaries and hypothesize that they are written at higher-than-recommended grade levels. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level (FKGL) and Flesch reading ease scores (FRES), 2 universally accepted scales for evaluating readability of medical information, were used. A total of 497 patients were included. The mean patient age was 56 ± 22 years. Average FKGL and FRES were 10 ± 1 and 44 ± 7, including 132 summaries classified as very or fairly difficult to read. A total of 204 (65%) patients had functional reading skills at grade levels below the FKGL of their dismissal note; only 74 patients (24%) had the reading skills to adequately comprehend their dismissal summary. Total 30-day readmissions were 40, 65% of whom were patients with inadequate literacy for dismissal summary comprehension. Patient discharge notes are written at too advanced of an educational level. To ensure patient comprehension, dismissal notes should be rewritten to a 6th-grade level.

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Citations

Apr 5, 2017·Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research·Jorge L PerezBrent A Ponce
Aug 18, 2017·Brain Injury : [BI]·Megan MooreMonica S Vavilala
Sep 15, 2018·Journal of Trauma Nursing : the Official Journal of the Society of Trauma Nurses·Aaron WrightJoseph Galante
Jan 20, 2019·BMJ Open·María Ángeles Piñero-LópezEduardo L Mariño
Mar 15, 2019·BMC Health Services Research·Christine Maria SchwarzGerald Sendlhofer
Apr 22, 2020·Journal of Nursing Measurement·Ghareeb BahariHae-Ra Han
Jan 10, 2021·Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice·Christine Maria SchwarzGerald Sendlhofer

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