Well, MedlinePlus.gov offers free, reliable, up-to-date health information in English and Spanish, with no advertisements. It’s called MedlinePlus Connect. This service lets health organizations and health providers to link patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to MedlinePlus, an authoritative up-to-date health information resource for patients, families, and health care providers. Upon receiving a problem code request, MedlinePlus Connect returns relevant MedlinePlus health information.

Content includes:
— Information on hundreds of diseases, conditions and wellness topics
— Interactive tutorials, videos and other multimedia
— An illustrated medical encyclopedia, dictionary definitions, and health news
— Links to health information in over 40 languages

MedlinePlus Connect can also link your EHR system to drug and supplement information written especially for patients. When an EHR system sends MedlinePlus Connect a request that includes a medication code, the service will return links to the most appropriate drug information.

Doesn’t this sound too good to be true?
Access to good, clear health information for free!
What a great use of tax dollars!

For more information, send your IT expert to: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/connect/overview.html

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Plain language is important for clear communications. There are many PDF booklets and books offering you step-by-step instructions on how to edit your materials for clarity. Best of all, they are free to download from the Internet. Here are links to a few:

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). (2010). Health Literacy: A Toolkit for Communicators Retrieved from http://www.ahip.org/healthliteracy/toolkit

Centers for medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). (2010). Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective. Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/WrittenMaterialsToolkit/.

Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center. (2005). Family Education Materials Development Kit Retrieved 3/4, 2006, from www.seattlechildrens.org/pdf/PEMatDevKit.pdf

Covering Kids & Families National Program Office. (2005). The Health Literacy Style Manual, from http://www.coveringkidsandfamilies.org/resources/docs/stylemanual.pdf

Doak, C. C., Doak, L. G., & Root, J. H. (1996). Teaching patients with low literacy skills (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. Retrieved from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/resources/doak-book/

Ridpath, J. R., Greene, S. M., & Wiese, C. J. (2007). PRISM Readability Toolkit Retrieved from http://www.grouphealthresearch.org/capabilities/readability/ghchs_readability_toolkit.pdf

Weiss, B. D. (2003). Health Literacy: A manual for clinicians Retrieved from http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/367/healthlitclinicians.pdf

So stop wasting resources by giving your patients printed information they cannot understand. Apply evidence to practice, edit your patient education materials to optimize readability, and observe the differences in health outcomes.

Happy teaching!

Nurse case managers can improve outcomes of patients with diabetes. http://www.physiciansbriefing.com/Article.asp?AID=655594

Patient decision aid: should your female patient with signs of a simple UTI take antibiotics? http://bit.ly/o1pBLK

Patient decision aid: should your patient without symptoms be screened for prostate cancer? http://bit.ly/nlagFt

What do patients want to know? Focus groups help to better target patient education. http://bit.ly/p2nyGA

Do your patients use health-related gadgets that track physical activity, measure blood pressure, and more? http://nyti.ms/nyruCm

Do you assume your patients self-administered each prescribed medication as directed? http://bit.ly/pRcDTl

Low health literacy is associated with poorer health outcomes and poorer use of health care services. http://1.usa.gov/mY1G9n

Vocabulary self-test for health literacy. http://nyti.ms/pz6pBf

Did you know the NIH has an Adherence Network? http://bit.ly/qhnVPN

We are developing systems that better manage chronic illnesses. Asthma is an example. http://bit.ly/qNZ4pd

Four intervention strategies to promote adherence achieve marked reduction in morbidity and cost. http://1.usa.gov/mUnAGY

So much information, so little time!

- Fran.

The reviewer, Judy McDaniel, MSN, RN, pointed out that chapters were able to “focus on the key points in a short and concise manner without the additional detail found in many references on patient education.” Yet, “If the nurse wants to find the in-depth rationale behind what method was used, there are many references. . . that can be reviewed when time permits.”

Yes, that was the point. No Time to Teach offers the evidence boiled down to the essence of patient and family education.

Thank you, Ms. McDaniel and JNSD.

To read the review:
Journal for Nurses in Staff Development – JNSD: May/June 2011, Volume 27, Issue 3, page 151.

So here’s a way to reach those colleagues on an affective level: Show them this 5 minute video produced by the American Medical Association.

And they thought those patients understood, just because they nodded their heads.

Maybe it’s not intentional non-compliance. Maybe the patient just didn’t know what to do . . .

Here’s the link: http://youtu.be/BgTuD7l7LG8
Once again, the link to this video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgTuD7l7LG8

95% of nurses surveyed want to use their skills and time to educate individuals about the threat and prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). You know, things like heart and kidney disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes.

“Nurses think they should be spending significantly more time, almost twice the amount they are able to devote, on preventing the development or escalation of [non-communicable diseases] NCDs. However, nearly all nurses surveyed (95%) are experiencing daily time pressures that they almost unanimously (98%) believe are having negative effects on patient health,” said Paula DeCola, RN, MSc., Pfizer External Medical Affairs.

“If nurses get the resources and time they need, they can arm people with the knowledge to help them make the critical lifestyle changes that will ultimately help combat the NCD crisis and improve global health.”

Pfizer concluded: “We must provide maximum support to nurses so we unleash their power to fight these debilitating and deadly diseases.”

Cool. When do we start?

Resource:
Survey Shows Nurses Can Use More Help in Battle Against NCDs from http://bit.ly/l1PEGc

The assumption: when coordination and communication improve between health care providers across the continuum of care, we could minimize duplication of efforts (such as repeated medical tests) and risk of errors. Savings will be shared based on five areas of patient care:
• Patient/caregiver experience of care
• Care coordination
• Patient safety
• Preventive health
• At-risk population/frail elderly health.
(healthcare.gov, 2011)

Can you see the opportunities here?

Everyone on the interdisciplinary health care team can benefit financially when the ACO does well. The drivers to improve patient safety and the experience of care, keep costs down, and prevent health problems all can be impacted with effective and efficient patient education.

So now is the time to brush up on those patient education skills! Prepare yourself for that ACO job interview by being able to articulate how quality patient education can help them meet their goals, and how you are the health care professional that can get them there.

Need a refresher? Review that copy of No Time to Teach: The Essence of Patient and Family Education for Health Care Providers. It will arm you with the research and skills you need to succeed in this new world of health care.

Resources:

healthcare.gov. (2011). Accountable Care Organizations: Improving Care Coordination for People with Medicare. Retrieved from www.healthcare.gov

Devers, K., & Berenson, R. (2009). Can Accountable Care Organizations Improve the Value of Health Care by Solving the Cost and Quality Quandaries? Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411975_acountable_care_orgs.pdf

©(2011) Fran London, MS, RN

What to do?

Well, instead of giving staff pens or mugs or backpacks this year, give the gift of inspiration: No Time to Teach. If you purchase 30 or more copies, they are 40% off, or only $7.77 each!

Here’s the link for your discount:
http://p-h.com/product.php?productid=17742&cat=1&page=1

Your choice of a gift can positively impact the practice of professionals and lives of patients. Make a difference. Inspire excellence.

A recent article in Wired Magazine, “The Blood Test Gets a Makeover,” demonstrated one way we can improve our communications with patients by presenting test results with better design and infographics. I first encountered infographics in USA Today, a national newspaper that often illustrated complex data in graphs. They’ve come a long way since then.

The author of this article, Steven Leckart, says, “… lab reports don’t have to be unintelligible. With some thought and design-minded thinking, tests can be as informative to patients as they are to physicians. With a little context and color, we can make sense of the numbers. And with a bit more understanding, patients can become participants in their own health.” This article shows examples of three types of lab results (a basic workup, a heart disease test, and a prostate test), each in the format we often give to patients, and translated into a clearer, easier-to-read and interpret, format.

See for yourself and tell me what you think. Here’s the link to “The Blood Test Gets a Makeover”
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_bloodwork/all/1