Strategies for Improving Medication Adherence

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Strategies for Improving Medication Adherence
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Assess Patient Understanding and Behavior

• How do patients feel about having to take the
  medication?
• What do they think will happen to their health if
  they dont take the medication as prescribed?

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Assessing Understanding of Medication Purpose

• What did your doctor tell you about this
  medicine?
• What exactly is your medicine supposed to do?
• What problem has caused you to need this medicine?

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Assessing Future Behavior

• When do you plan to take your medication?
• How long are you going to be taking your
  medication?
• What did your doctor tell you to do if you missed
  a dose?
• How should you be storing this medication?

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Assessing Past Behavior

• How have you been taking this medication?
• How has taking this medication changed your daily
  schedule, habits, etc.?
• How many doses of this medication have you missed
  in the last week?
• What caused you to miss these doses?

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Assessing Medication Effectiveness

• How do you know if your cholesterol / blood
  pressure medication is working?
• How often do you get your blood pressure checked?
• What was your last TC reading?

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Assessing Potential Medication Problems

• What kinds of problems are you having?
• What side effects have you noted since you
  started taking this medication?
• What side effects are you supposed to look for?

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False Assumptions about Patient Understanding and
Medication Adherence

• Dont assume that
• doctors have talked to their patients.
• patients understand all the information you give
  them.
• if patient understand, that they will just take
  the medication as required.
• because someone does not take the medication as
  directed that they dont care or arent
  motivated.
• just because someone takes their medication
  correctly now, they will continue to do so.
• doctors monitor patient compliance.
• patients who are having problems will ask you for
  help.

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Techniques to improve patient understanding

• Examine your own attitude toward patient
  counseling.
• Emphasize key points.
• Give reasons why something is important
  (antibiotics).
• Give concrete instructions.
• Present key information at the beginning and the
  end of your discussions.
• Use written information to back up your verbal
  counseling.
• Verify what patients have learned.

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Techniques to Improve Patient Behavior

• Teach them to integrate new behaviors with
  current behaviors.
• Provide good aids when you can, like pill
  organizers, counter caps, alarms etc.
• Help patients with self monitoring options, log
  books, calendars, etc.
• Monitor medication use on your end refill
  records and encourage patients where
  appropriate.
• Refer patients with extreme or special needs to
  appropriate help Medicaid, various medication
  assistance programs, reading comprehension
  services, and so on.