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ER
Waiting Room Can
Teach Lessons in Health
NEW
YORK (Reuters Health) - While-you-wait health information might
make people's long stays in emergency department waiting rooms
more productive, new research suggests.
In a study
of 470 emergency department patients, investigators found that
giving them computerized health surveys in the waiting room uncovered
more of the patients' medical details. This waiting-room healthcare
also made patients more likely to remember medical advice they
received in the emergency department, researchers report in the
March issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
To investigate
whether emergency department waiting rooms present a potential
``teachable moment,'' researchers had about half of the study
patients complete a computerized health survey while they waited
to see a doctor.
The survey
collected information on patients' medical conditions and habits
that affected their health, such as smoking, drug use and risky
sexual behavior. The computer then generated health recommendations
for the patient and a one-page patient profile for the doctor.
During the survey, patients could also request and receive print-outs
of further information on particular health concerns.
One week later,
patients who took the survey were more than twice as likely as
the other patients to remember the health advice they received
in the emergency department, according to researchers led by Dr.
Karin V. Rhodes of the University of Chicago, Illinois.
In addition,
most of the surveyed patients ``disclosed'' at least one problem
that put their health at risk, including problem drinking, drug
abuse, untreated high blood pressure and depression.
``Of importance,''
Rhodes and her colleagues note, ``the large majority (95%) of
patients who completed the computer questionnaire elected to receive
additional information about specific health topics.''
The patients
who took the survey were ``very accepting'' of the technology
and interested in gaining health information while they waited,
the report indicates.
These findings
suggest that the emergency department is ''conducive to providing
a teachable moment for preventive health messages, regardless
of whether those messages are related to the reason for (the)
visit,'' the authors conclude.
SOURCE:
Annals of Emergency Medicine 2001;37:284-291.
Reference
Source 89
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