Ann Arbor (WWJ)  -- A new study by researchers from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University finds that many patients treated and released by U.S. emergency rooms may leave without a clear understanding of what happened, what their ailment is, and what they need to do.

The new findings reinforce the importance for patients and medical professional to ensure everything is clear before a patient leaves the hospital.

"It is critical that emergency patients understand their diagnosis, their care, and perhaps most important, their discharge instructions," says lead author Kirsten Engel, M.D., a former U-M emergency medicine fellow and Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar who is now at Northwestern University, in a release from the University of Michigan. 

"It is disturbing that so many patients do not understand their post-emergency department care, and that they do not even recognize where the gaps in understanding are. Patients who fail to follow discharge instructions may have a greater likelihood of complications after leaving the emergency department." 

"As a physician, I would like to think I could look someone in the eye and ask: 'Do you have any questions?,' and those who were confused or overwhelmed would ask for more help," says Peter Ubel, M.D., a professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School. "This study shows that many patients walk away from important clinical encounters confident that they know what happened and why, but with little reason to be so confident."

Researchers measured the extent to which patients' reports agreed with their doctors' records in four areas: diagnosis, emergency care that was given, post-ER care needs and what kinds of symptoms or signs would require the patient to return to the ER or seek immediate care. Only 22 percent of patients' reports were in complete harmony with what their care teams reported on all four counts, while 58 percent of patients understood at least two of the four areas. 

The study  was published online by the Annals of Emergency Medicine.