Medication nonadherence is a big issue when it comes to patients having chronic diseases or illnesses. Medication nonadherence is when the patient for some reason doesn’t take their medications as prescribed, this could lead to a negative impact on patient outcome levels. Medication adherence is dependent upon factors such as costs, fears, and misunderstandings.
The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the medication nonadherence rate is 50% in patients suffering from chronic diseases. Healthcare providers and stakeholders in the healthcare sector are trying out different strategies to enhance adherence and surprisingly a new study provides valuable insights related to EHR clinical notes and improved medication adherence.
Patient Access to EHR Clinical Notes Leads to Improved Adherence
The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society published a study that discovered that the accessibility of EHR clinical notes can lead to older patients with chronic diseases being more engaged and adherent to medication dosages.
Researchers did a survey on patients using the Patient Portal EMR Software solution from three healthcare organizations in the US. The surveyed users were above 65 years old and had a minimum of a single clinical note from the past year. The research also fights the notion of older patients not using online digital tools such as the patient portal platform. It was learned that patients with chronic conditions who read clinical notes helped them stay engaged in their healthcare journey. They also revealed that by having easy access to notes they could remember their care plan supporting them to take their medications on time. Older patients are prone to forgetting care plans but clinical notes help them stay on track of their medication adherence and answer any confusions if they have regarding their prescription.
Patient Engagement is Vital
What your medical organization or practice can do is to provide easy access to patient information. Clinical notes should be added with easy jargon to help improve the patient’s understanding and give much more clarity to medication adherence and also enhance patient outcome levels.
To ensure that your patients are engaged with their chronic care plan after their session with the healthcare provider your practice should implement a user-friendly patient portal platform. For higher adaptation rates the patient portal online tool should be intuitive and easy to use so patients are less hesitant to use it for their own benefit. When patients are allowed to view their EHR data online it leads to higher satisfaction scores, boosting patient engagement and increasing overall medication adherence. The patient information in personal files keeps patients well informed to take their prescribed medications and feel involved in their healthcare journey.
