Although Dr. MA’s practice provides postprocedure instructions to all patients, she has not ever really paid attention to what is included on these patient education handouts. She states her rationale as, “I always directly discuss all postprocedure instructions with my patients.” The nurses have noticed that Dr. MA has a larger number of callbacks from patients about postprocedure concerns compared to other providers in the office. This increases the nurses’ workload, resulting in more overtime hours for the nurses. When Dr. MA carefully went over the postprocedure patient education instructions, what she told her patients was slightly different than what was in the written instructions, and this was identified as why her proportion of callbacks was higher.
Diagnosis: Incomplete/inaccurate patient education
Recommendations:
- Periodically review all your practice’s patient education materials and procedures
- Ensure that what providers explain to patients matches what is on patient handouts
- Take time to review with the nurses the patient education information and get their feedback on what could be changed to reduce call backs
See Patient Engagement With Education–It’s More Than a Handout! and Engaging Patients With Staff Engagement.
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