More and more studies are finding that poor communication between patients and their physicians is often the cause of poor medical outcomes for the patient. Although the doctor may have prescribed an appropriate medication or health regimen for the patient’s condition, the patient often fails to take the medication or take it properly and/or fails to follow other instructions for getting better.
The Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) has, therefore, launched a health literacy campaign. Although its efforts are aimed primarily at physicians, teaching them ways to better communicate to their patients, MSSNY is also reaching out to patients to encourage them to let their doctors know when they do not understand by asking questions.
For help with its patient education campaign, MSSNY has joined the Partnership for Clear Health Literacy and endorsed its Ask Me 3 program, which teaches patients to ask and when and how to ask - questions to help them better understand their health. (The timing of this campaign, coincidentally, ties in with National Health Education Week, which was October 16-20 this year.)
Severity and Consequences of Poor Health Communication
The need for improved physician/patient education became acutely evident in 2004 with the issuance of a federal Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, titled Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion, which stated that 28% of NYS adults are functionally illiterate, and nearly half of all US adults have difficulty understanding and using health information.
This September, the National Center for Education Statistics issued another discouraging report, titled the Health Literacy of America’s Adults, Its researchers found that although 53% of US adults had intermediate health literacy, 22% had basic health literacy, and 14% had below basic health literacy.
Health literacy is the ability to read, understand and effectively use basic medical instructions and information. Although this term is mistakenly thought to apply only to the uneducated and people who have difficulty with the English language, it can also apply to people with a hearing impairment or those who have difficulty paying attention when given medical advice. Thus, even some of the friends, relatives and readers of this newspaper may need to learn how to communicate better with healthcare providers.
People with low health literacy are - less likely to comply with prescribed treatment, and self-care regimens - are less likely to seek preventative care and are, therefore, more likely to ultimately need more extensive and expensive care, including hospitalization; on average, need to remain in the hospital longer than their literate counterparts; often suffer from medical mistakes because they take the wrong dosage of a medication or do not follow the proper healthcare regimen; and often require additional care that results in annual health care costs that are four times that of their counterparts.
What to Ask the Doctor and How
To avoid the health problems, the medical society advises all adults to follow the basic principles of the Ask Me 3 program, which are to ask the following three questions:
1. What is my main problem?
2. What do I need to do?
3. Why is it important for me to do this? These questions should be asked when:
* Consulting a physician, nurse or pharmacist,
* Preparing for a medical test or procedure, and/or
* Obtaining medicine,
And - patients who still don’t understand after asking, should ask again and again until they do, MSSNY president, Richard Peer, MD, assures, “Patients should never be embarrassed. It is the patient’s right to be given the information, and it is the healthcare providers’ job to relay it in a form that the patient comprehends. Both patient and doctor benefit if the patient understands the health problem and the instructions for treating it.” Both the patient and the doctor want the patient to know:
* All relevant information about the patient’s condition,
* Why reducing or eliminating this problem is important to the patient’s overall health, and
* What needs to be done (drugs, diet, surgery, physical therapy, etc.) to get the condition under control?
To make sure that both the patient and the physician get all the information they need to improve the patient's health, MSSNY recommends that patien’ts do the following whenxonsuiting their physician:
* Ask all three questions.
* Ask a friend or family member to accompany them to serve as an objective back-up set of eyes and ears.
* Take a list of medicines and supplements being taken, as well as any potentially health-threatening activities or conditions.
To learn more about the Ask Me 3 program, log on to www.AskMe3.org.
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