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Part 2
Quality improvement research enables hospitals and doctors a means of maximize their services and ensuring that the patients receive the utmost care. A difficult area for doctors to find a solution was the area of compliance. Many patients fail to accept a physician's advice and their illness continues resulting in repeat hospitalizations and further injury to the patient.
In a study conducted in 1976, concerned physicians wanted to find a means of getting patients to better cooperate with their recommended treatment options. Prior to the study, less than half of the hospital's patients followed their doctor's advice and took their medication as prescribed. The one group that was most notorious for this was high blood pressure patients. So, this was the group that the study targeted and tried to improve the outcome of.
During the study, doctors were trained on a new communication technique...
This technique required the doctors to fully listen to the patient's description of symptoms, probe deeper with followup questions, educate the patient on their condition and explain the purpose of the recommended treatment in improving the condition. Half of the patients were treated using this technique while the other half were treated using the standard technique. The result was that the technique doubled the amount of patients who took their medication.
This study followed a Stetler model where the problem of non-compliance was identified and reasons for the problem theorized. A solution was then constructed and attempted alongside a control group and the results were tracked. In this case, the intervention proved successful and the results revealed the improved success rate.
Inui TS, Yourtee EL, Williamson JW (1976). Improved outcomes in hypertension after physician tutorials. A controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 84(6), 646 -- 651.
