The Real Status of the Explanation of the Conditions of Patients at our Critical Care Medical Center

Abstract

Explanation about the conditions of patients is not easy in the emergency medical care setting. We analyzed the status of the explanation provided at our Critical Care Medical Center for 373 cases. There were 141 cases (37.8%) who seemed to understand our explanation on the day of admission. On the other hand, 139 patients (37.3%) with drug poisoning, consciousness disturbances, head injury or alcoholism seemed to understand our explanation several days after the admission. There were 93 patients (24.9%) with consciousness disturbances, head injury, dementia or psychological diseases who could not understand our explanation at any time-point during their hospitalization. The families of the patients visited the hospital on the day of the admission in 293 cases (78.6%). In 39 cases (10.4%) who had no families, or whose families did not visit the hospital, we faced severe difficulty. At the same time, we must also respect the privacy of the patients.