Teaching patients about their health through a single piece of paper

Only 60 percent of patients are able to clearly say why they are taking a medication, a surprising figure that can negatively impact patient adherence. Physicians at the Cleveland Clinic hope to improve that figure by implementing a simple and easy way to teach patients about their own care.

A recent survey by HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) showed that many patients know very little about their own health or the medications their taking. In fact:

• For “Communication about Medicines,” only 50 percent of patients gave the unit a top score.
• Only about 60 percent understood why they were taking the medication.
• Less than 40 percent could describe a side effect of their medication.

“Communicating about medication is a challenge for hospitals everywhere,” said Kelly Brown, RN, of Cleveland Clinic’s Fairview Hospital. “It’s especially important that telemetry nurses focus on medication education since patients are often discharged home.”

Many factors effect patient adherence, including language barriers, complex medical terms and patients feeling overwhelmed with too much information.

As a way to combat low patient adherence, the Cleveland Clinic has developed teaching sheets, which contain information about the patient’s specific medication by function and list the side effects and special instructions.

After a three-month trial patient adherence improved with:

• Nearly 80 percent of patients gave the unit the top score for “Communication about Medicines."
• Nearly 100 percent understood why they were taking their meds.
• 50 percent could name at least one side effect.

“The sheets helped us increase patient understanding, adherence and satisfaction.” said Brown.