Adherence to Medical Advice Essay

"Century after century, the belief that an individual’s physical health was independent of his or her emotional health has so dominated medical thought that there has even been open contempt for anyone who would dare to claim that a person’s physical well-being is the sum of its internal and external influences." (Sandy Oshiro Rosen (Bare: The Misplaced Art of Grieving and Dancing))

Some of the factors that patients do not adhere to when their healthcare provider tells them too is due to patients being too busy. Often times life is very busy as we all know this but forgetting to take of yourself can have detrimental effects to your health. Some people think they can get better on their own without the help of a doctor so they feel like they will be fine or able to handle any health complication on their own. Another reason is that often people do not understand or they forget what the doctor is telling them about their prescribed treatment regimens and other patients decide to simply not follow it. As stated in the article by Sklar, Min Sen Oh & & Chuen Li, 2008 “Poor communication with healthcare providers was also likely to cause a negative effect on patient’s compliance (Bartlett et al 1984; Apter et al 1998)”. Miscommunication between a doctor and patient is at the root of most adherence problems. Often times patients leave their doctors office not knowing or having the slightest clue to what they should be doing. Instead of asking for help or clarity they just leave. Communication needs to be clear and effective for both the patient and the doctor. Non-adherence is wide spread when it comes to patients not adhering to what professionals tell them. Many patients will have significant risks because they forget,

Medication adherence is described as the extent to which the patients take medication as prescribed by the health care provider. To ensure the patients receive proper care, health care systems must implement procedures to successfully meet their needs and overall improve their quality of life. However, there are several reasons that affect proper medical care, which ultimately results in an increase in health care expenses and poorer health outcomes for patients. Studies have shown that approximately 50% of patients do not take their chronic medications as prescribed and that nonadherence can cost the health care system nearly $100 to $289 billion per year (1). Medication adherence is difficult to achieve due to ineffective communication between

“The odds of having good health outcomes are 2.88 % higher when patients are adherent” ( DiMatteo, Haskard-Zolnierek & Martin, 2012, p. 75). Nonadherence occurs for many reasons and may or may not be intentional. Nonadherence is defined as the failure to follow prescribed medical advice. Examples of actions considered to be medical advice are: to take medication as prescribed, make behavioral changes such as diet and exercise, keep appointments, and have screenings/testing done. Nonadherence, also called noncompliance also causes frustration of providers and patients, and wastes resources. Rates of nonadherence can be as high as 70% with complex regimens (Martin, Williams & DiMatteo, 2005). Factors in compliance with medical advice include: severity of disease, complexity of regimen, patient knowledge and beliefs, costs incurred by the patient, resource availability, availability of social support, psychological problems, and rapport and communication with healthcare providers.

Negative reinforcement by instilling fear to comply is unethical and if a patient refuses treatment after information giving this must be accepted (Haynes et al. 2002:2881). Documentation is a vital tool to protect health professionals in this situation (Loveridge 2005:19). The promotion of concordance must be within a framework of health promotion as medication compliance is a learned response in health management and self-efficacy (Embrey 2006:510).

There are many different solutions to patient non-compliance. Education is one of the biggest factors that play into whether or not a patient will adhere to discharge instructions. When patients do not understand why they are taking their medication and or how they are supposed to continue their care at home; it poses a big contribution to patient non-compliance. According to Pasina’s (2014) medication adherence study, patients are more likely to follow there medication regimen if they are better educated on why they are taking their medication, when they should take their medication and how to correctly take their medication. Dury (2013) states that offering patients tools that will help them improve their health and better understand their medication will increase adherence.

How medical decision making aides the health care professional and the patient regarding the patient’s treatment, medical cost and autonomy.

So, my doctor always have many recommendations, which means he usually gives me some type of regimen to follow once I get home, but that’s a whole-nother story.(smile) I’m sure that non-compliance with advice/awareness and/or treatment recommendations is probably the top complaint doctors have about most patients. But, I think, compliance these days can be a lot more complex than just remembering to take a pill because doctors are sending patients (including me) home with long lists of self-care tasks. Nonetheless, maintaining healthier life styles can be difficult to manage and/or, in some cases, for patients to afford. Though, compliance doesn't certainly mean following the doctor's instructions diligently, but some patients don't follow treatment programs because they are unorganized, and others might fail to comply because they've experienced severe side effects and don't fully understand what they're supposed to do, and/or found the treatment wasn't working. So, I feel that doctors need to make it safe for patients to bring up these sort of things. Perhaps that's why patients are thinking only of their own conditions, whereas doctors are thinking of the overall effectiveness with all of their patients, including those with chronic conditions that are difficult to diagnose and treat, such as Myasthenia Gravis which is an immune disorder (which my mother has), headaches, neck and back

Adherence to medication therapy can be described as the degree of which a prescribed medical regiment, as directed by a health care provider, is being actively followed by a patient. Considering how it is an active role to be followed by the patient, this would designate both the patient and health care provider as responsible in the attainment of a healthy outcome. As such, there exists lots of variability in the rate of adherence (Ho et al, 2009). Even beyond the health status of an individual, nonadherence as it currently stands in its prevalence can lead to a great deal of costs to health care and hospitalization when a patients health becomes compromised as a result (McDonald et al, 2005). When one party in an agreement cannot be dependent to do their part, it becomes up to the other group to take initiative to reach their mutual goal henceforth becoming the duty of the health care professional to step in and coordinate the care plan. Provided a wide array of professionals, the pharmacist and their expertise in medicine arise as the most suited in the improvement in patient adherence to medication therapies.

Imagine a time you had a bad experience at the doctor’s office, whether you felt out of place, embarrassed, uncomfortable, judged, or felt down about yourself. If you do not have any bad experiences at the doctor then think about what might make someone's visit with a doctor go wrong. Many people are very sensitive when it comes to putting their trust into another person’s hands, especially when it comes to their health. When it comes down to relying on someone there are a lot of different ways it takes people to learn if they can completely depend on another person. When it comes to doctors, some people may just take their word just because they have a medical degree, but others it takes time to figure out if a doctor is trustworthy. I would

Effectively managing the health of the population requires tremendous efforts and strategies of a healthcare organization. Leveraging the use of health information technology such as enabling the use of clinical decision support (CDS) at the point care is one of the strategies for an effective population health management (PHM). Rush-Copley Medical Center has successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of CDS at the point of care in managing a TB outbreak, which has resulted in containing the disease and further outbreak in the general population. Such an example has shown the optimization of the systems and the value of health information technology

My Pulse rises, my pupils widen, my heart skips a beat, and I may be little out of breath. I am experiencing an adrenalin rush. This is what I experience when I go to the VA facility in Loma Linda. It is a conditioned response from years of dealing with the VA system. Now, I feel this way anytime I go to visit the Doctors office. There are many reasons for this. Long wait times are frustrating, especially for someone with PTSD. The fact that there are more germs in a doctor’s offices is a source of worry as well. The young and seeming inexperienced medical staff does not give me confidence in their ability. I believe that visits to the doctor can prove more traumatic than the illness.

Imagine: You decide to exercise your legal right to peaceful protest, in support of one cause or another. We exist in the not-too distant future, when current technologies more fully enter ‘acceptance’ by the masses as common policing tools…

Cognitive decline in patients could result in a lack of understanding of the importance of the medication or possibly forgetting to take the medication as scheduled. One health care provider factor that should be mentioned is due to lack of trust between the patient and the health care provider. It is essential for rapport to be built between the provider and the patient for effective education of the medication. Medication factors could be the result of difficult to open packages, medications that require pill cutting, as well as the cost or lack of insurance coverage for a medication (Frances, Thirumoorthy, and Kwan, 2015). Some factors for noncompliance are easily prevented, and the assessment of the patient’s barriers towards medication compliance is

Medical documentation is the recording an storing patient information so it can be use to communicate in the healthcare setting an for future use. The steps in medical documentation are: