Good Healthcare Communications Extend to Prescriptions
According to the National Council on Patient Information and Education, 50 percent of patients do not take their prescriptions as recommended by their doctors. This issue affects Americans of all ages, both genders and is just as likely to involve higher-income, well-educated people as those at lower socioeconomic levels. And, it’s an expensive problem. Prescription noncompliance has been estimated to cost $170 billion annually in total direct and indirect healthcare costs.
A National Community Pharmacists Association consumer survey found the following:
* Almost half of those polled (49 percent) said they had forgotten to take a prescribed medicine
* Nearly one-third (31percent) had not filled a prescription they were given
* Nearly three out of 10 (29 percent) had stopped taking a medicine before the supply ran out
* Almost one-quarter (24percent) had taken less than the recommended dosage
These statistics are troubling. Stopping a medication prematurely or taking less than the recommended dose is a prescription – pun intended – for continued health problems down the road, particularly for chronic diseases like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes, where proper, regular dosing can mean the difference between a relatively normal life and a one-way trip to the hospital.
Low health literacy is one part of the problem. Because health information can be dense and complex, people of all educational levels can have difficulty understanding it. This is a big problem to tackle, but a coordinated effort among the medical, pharmaceutical and health insurance industries can help to champion the issue of health literacy.
Another part of the problem is in the doctor’s office. Busy practitioners write prescriptions and hand them to patients as they’re bustling on to their next appointment. There’s rarely enough time to fully explain the medication – why it’s being prescribed – why it’s important to take it exactly as directed – and perhaps most important – the long-term consequences if the condition isn’t treated medically. Or, perhaps the doctor, who lives in this world day in and day out, just assumes the patient understands the ins and outs of the medication and why compliance is so important.
Good two-way communication between doctor and patient can help solve this problem. As a patient, keep a list of questions handy for each visit to the doctor. What medication are you prescribing? How will it help my condition? Should I expect side effects, if so, what kind? What happens if I skip a dose? How expensive is the medication and is there a less-costly option? Is there another treatment option?
As a doctor, keep in mind that patients don’t always understand their medical condition, the need for the treatment, or the risks of not following the treatment.While taking time to chat with a patient about treatment medication is preferred, doctors also can provide written information in “patient language” that explains how to correctly manage medications. The best option is follow up a conversation with printed information the patient can take home and refer to away from the stress of the doctor’s office.
Noncompliance with medication is too costly – in terms of both health and financial implications – to ignore.
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