Informing Patients: A Guide for Providing Patient Health Information

Abstract

A b s t r a c t Objective:To understand and address patients' need for information surrounding ambulatory-care visits. Design:The authors conducted two patient focus groups regarding patient education. The first covered general information needs of patients and the second explored their reactions to a computer-generated patient handout that was developed in response to the results of the first focus group and implemented in a clinic. Results:Participants sought information about their health -generally after the encounter with their caregiver. They wanted a permanent record of personal health data and relevant educational information. Participants recommended that the information be concise, clear, and illustrated with graphics if appropriate. Receiving health-related information from their providers favorably affected the participants' trust in, relationship with, and confidence in their physicians. When given printouts with graphic trends depicting their responses to therapy, participants reported that they were more motivated to adhere to a treatment plan and were more satisfied with their care. Based on the results of the focus groups, we developed a set of attributes (P.A.T.I.E.N.T.) to guide the development of patient and consumer health information. Conclusions:Patients participating in our focus groups felt that providing printed summary information to patients at the end of a clinic visit improves their understanding of their care, enhances their relationships with providers, improves their satisfaction with care, and motivates them to adhere to treatment plans. Further empirical studies are necessary to test their perceptions.Ⅲ J Am Med Inform Assoc. 1998;5:563 -570.In general, patients want to participate more in decisions regarding their health and health care.1 -4 Although the exact role that a patient wishes to play in decision making will vary from patient to patient, the desire for information about care is high. 5 -7 We are interested in developing, as part of a computer-based patient record system project, tools that assist caregivers in providing better health information to their patients. In this paper, we describe results of two patient focus groups regarding patients' information needs. We previously reported the results of a focus group that covered the broad topic of patient information needs following an ambulatory-care visit. 5 We conducted a second focus group to explore patients' reaction to a document (the after-visit summary) designed to meet the information needs identified by the first group. We believe that addressing patients' need for information will allow them to more effectively participate in their own care.

Perceptions of issues associated with the maintenance and improvement of long-term health in people with SCI

“…This is likely a more viable strategy because we know that, 'patients seek answers to their questions at the time they formulate the questions'. 26 Many times those questions will arise after discharge from the rehabilitation centre. It may be feasible to use problem-based learning (PBL) as a teaching model for the SCI inpatient education curriculum because it is a model that encourages the participants to develop strategies and processes to answer their own questions.…”

Key Elements of High-Quality Primary Care for Vulnerable Elders

“…26 A post-visit summary may help patients in adhering to recommendations Workflow management system Clinical information systems/decision support Use structured visit notes for paper or electronic health records, including clinical reminders and condition-specific order sets where applicable, to guide clinicians on appropriate data collection for geriatric syndromes 17,31 Take advantage of pre-visit questionnaires (new visit and follow-up) to decrease data gathering needs while clinician and patient are face-to-face 31 Employ digital pen/paper/smart form technology to capture questionnaire information (e.g., PHQ-2) directly from paper into the electronic health record to avoid duplicate data entry 43,44 Patient (and caregiver) -clinician communication systems…”

“…One such routine could include routine generation of postvisit summaries that embody the plan verbally agreed upon by patient and clinician at the visit. 26 More generally, creating a communication routine means ensuring a mutual awareness among parties to communication regarding the time and frequency with which information should be shared, who the senders and recipients of the information should be, the methods (e.g., written versus verbal) by which information will be transmitted, and what content should be conveyed.…”

Association of Patient Recall, Satisfaction, and Adherence to Content of an Electronic Health Record (EHR)-Generated After Visit Summary: A Randomized Clinical Trial

“…6 The extant literature on the AVS is limited to a study of patient attitudes about the use of the AVS in clinical settings. 7 In an editorial on the rapid development and adoption of computerized clinical decision support systems deployed within EHRs, Garg and Tonelli 8 note the gap between the availability of electronic innovations and any accompanying scientifically developed information in relation to their effects on patient outcomes and cost.In 2008 clinicians in our setting were tasked with advising health system administrators on the configuration and features of the new EHR system. They identified as a research priority the need for evidence regarding the best way to format and utilize the AVS feature.…”

“…6 The extant literature on the AVS is limited to a study of patient attitudes about the use of the AVS in clinical settings. 7 In an editorial on the rapid development and adoption of computerized clinical decision support systems deployed within EHRs, Garg and Tonelli 8 note the gap between the availability of electronic innovations and any accompanying scientifically developed information in relation to their effects on patient outcomes and cost.…”