How Patient Compliance Rose From 0% to 64%

Patient compliance with all needed pre-op behaviors rose from 0 to 64%. “Because patients are very stressed; they’re anxious before surgery; they’ve got a lot of other things on their mind other than what we want them to do.” That was Roy Rosin, Chief Innovation Officer for Penn Medicine speaking in a video for Catalyst. “We require a lot of work from patients.” He went on to describe a project at Penn Medicine that removed work for colorectal surgery patients.

The Penn Med team identified three key pre-op behaviors: skin prep, drinking Gatorade and taking antibiotics during bowel preparation. Patients demonstrated zero compliance for all three behaviors. The team asked, “Why do we make patients assemble the kit, go to different places for their supplies, etc.?” They created patient bags containing all the supplies needed. With these bags, the percentage of patients who conducted all three behaviors rose from 0% to 64%. And when they added more help by providing tips and reminders via text or phone, the percentage of patients doing all three behaviors rose to 100%.

Roy Rosin summed it up best: “Let’s make the right choice the easy choice.”

Has an organization done something to make the right choice easier for you?
Your kindness makes a difference every day,
Susan