Preventable patient harms from medications are significant threats to patient safety in ambulatory and community settings and contributed 700,000 emergency department visits each year. More than a third of community-dwelling 65 years or older adults take 5 or more prescription medications. In ambulatory and community settings, more so than in inpatient settings, medication safety is shaped by interactions among patient/caregivers and different professionals across locations. We developed a set of patient partnership tools to encourage and empower patients to make use of their office visits through setting expectations of information sharing, learning basics of medication self-management, and working with community pharmacy resources. The trial will be conducted at private and safety-net primary care clinics to assess the impact of the partnership tools: 1) a one-page 'visit prep guide' given to relevant patients by clinic staff before seeing the provider, with the intention to improve communication and shared decision-making; and (2) a series of short educational videos that clinic staff can encourage patients to watch. A step-wedge design will be used, with medication use self-efficacy as the primary outcome, as measured by a validated tool. Secondary outcomes are issues identified by medication review.
The trial is to assess the impact of two patient partnership tools: (1) a one-page 'visit prep guide' given to relevant patients by clinic staff before seeing the provider, with the intention to improve communication and shared decision-making; and (2) a series of short educational videos that clinic staff can encourage patients to watch.