Patient’s perception of kidney stone prevention within the emergency department and its adherence factors: a single institution study

BACKGROUND: No known data in the literature assessing practice of kidney stone prevention in the emergency department (ED) is available. OBJECTIVES: Assess patient perception and compliance to kidney stone prevention given within the emergency department. It also indirectly detects the attitude and practice patterns of primary care providers in kidney stone prevention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a qualitative study done in a single institution from January 2018 to January 2019 that includes 99 patients that were diagnosed with kidney or ureteral stone in ED and were discharged home, all of them where stone formers. They were asked to fill a self- administered questionnaire when they are able to read, or interviewed by the resident within the ED when they are unable to read. RESULTS: The majority of patients (68%) did not receive any instructions about kidney stones prevention within the ED. Most of patients who follow instructions if it was given were educated (90%), had an insurance coverage (85%), and had an income higher than $1000 per month (76%), (p < 0.05). Seventy one percents of patients believe in the effectiveness of stone prevention if it was provided and most of them are interested in learning about these preventive strategies (82%). Reasons for not following the instructions about kidney stones prevention measures were the cost (53.1%) following by the lack of explanation by ED physicians (18.8%). The majority of patients (62.6%) prefer to receive kidney stones prevention measures from urologists. CONCLUSION: Most of patients in our institute did not receive kidney stones prevention measures in ED despite that they declared their interest in following these measures. Most of the time they did not adhere to those measures due to socioeconomic factors and lack of clarifications. If these instructions were given within the ED, it could lead to an acceptable compliance rate. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12873-019-0263-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.