Introduction: To improve comprehension of medical care, the Joint Commission recommends that patient education materials (PEMS) be written at a fifth-grade reading level or below. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the compliance of commonly used tertiary drug references to Joint Commission standards. Methods: PEMs for the top 100 most prescribed medications in 2017 were obtained from commonly used drug information tertiary references (Lexi-comp patient drug information, Micromedex Care Notes, Micromedex Med Essential Fact Sheets, Medline Plus, and Drugs.com) to evaluate readability. The grade reading level of each medication-related PEM was evaluated using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test and compared with a one-way analysis of variance using correlated samples and Tukey's post-hoc test for significance between groups. Results: The mean grade reading levels of Lexi-comp, Micromedex Care Notes, Micromedex Med Essential Fact Sheets, Medline Plus, and Drugs.com were 4.2, 7.5, 7.8, 9.3, and 10.4, respectively. Lexi-comp achieved a reading level at or below fifth grade for 99% of medications while Micromedex Med Essential Fact sheets was the next highest at 33%. No other reference contained drug information at or below a fifth-grade reading level. Conclusion: Lexi-comp patient drug information consistently met the Joint Commission recommendation for medical information at or below a fifth-grade reading level, whereas Micromedex Med Essential Fact Sheets met this recommendation approximately one-third of the time. When providing drug information resources to patients, health-care providers should be diligent in selecting sources that meet the Joint Commission recommendations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etsu-works-2-1501 |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| Creators | Perez, Emily J., Covert, Kelly, Lewis, Paul O. |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | ETSU Faculty Works |
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