Effects of computer generated reminder charts on patients' compliance with drug regimens

• HIT Description: Computerized decision support with reminders. More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: Examine whether a reminder chart improved patients' compliance with their drug regimen after discharge from hospital.
  
• Years of study: Not Available
  
• Study Design: RCT
  
• Outcomes: Impact on health care effectivness/quality, Other outcome
  

• Settings: One hundred ninety-seven patients being discharged from a hospital in Leeds, UK who were regularly taking two or more drugs participated in the study.
• Intervention: The interventions studied were: 1) individualized reminder chart (which listed each person's medicines and when they were to be taken and was automatically generated by a medicine labeling computer) with routine counseling from a nurse; 2) individualized reminder chart with structured counseling from a pharmacist, which included an explanation of the reminder chart; 3) only counseling from a nurse; 4) only counseling from a pharmacist.
• Evaluation Method: Measures of patient's compliance with and knowledge of their drug regimen.
• Quality of Care and Patient Safety Outcome: Of the patients who received the reminder chart, 83% (95% confidence interval 74% to 90%) correctly described their dose regimen compared with 47% (37% to 58%) of those without the chart (p 0.001). The mean compliance score was 86% (81% to 91%) in both groups not given the reminder chart; 91% (87% to 94%) in the group given the chart without an explanation; and 95% (93% to 98%) in the group given the chart and an explanation. A mean compliance score of > 85% was achieved by 63% (53% to 73%) of patients without a reminder chart and by 86% (78% to 93%) of those receiving the chart (p 0.001).