How readable are our Patient Information Sheets?

L Strachan,M Booth

doi:10.1186/cc14653

Abstract

We often need to obtain consent for clinical studies in the ICU. Participant Information Sheets (PIS) can be difficult to understand. A recent French publication [1] supports our hypothesis that PIS have poor readability scores.

Highlights

To assess cerebral hemodynamics in an experimental sepsis model
Since the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) in 2002, the Health Service Ombudsman for England published recommendations for improving recognition and treatment of sepsis [2], the Royal College of Physicians issued a toolkit for the management of sepsis in the acute medical unit [3], and NHS England released a patient safety alert to support prompt recognition and treatment of sepsis [4]
We sought to estimate the number of unalerted sepsis episodes to assess the efficacy of our screening tool and improve early recognition

Summary

Introduction

We evaluated platelet activation markers as potential predictive markers of sepsis and of mortality among four commonly encountered populations of patients admitted to ICUs. Methods Ninety-nine non-infected ICU patients were prospectively screened at day 1 (T1) and day 3 (T2) of admission after elective cardiac surgery, trauma, acute neurologic dysfunction or prolonged ventilation (>48 hours). The present study was performed with the aim of assessing whether nursing and physician staff were able to identify patients in need of critical care using only clinical judgment and to compare this with the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) Methods This was a prospective cohort study of all adult patients with a first-time admission to a medical admission unit at a 450-bed regional teaching hospital over a 3-month period in 2010.

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Conclusion