Improving Communication of Medication Instructions to Parents

Dissemination of a Health Literacy Intervention to Improve Provider-Patient Communication of Medication Instructions and Decrease Outpatient Pediatric Medication Errors

Almost half of all US adults have trouble understanding and using health information, or low health literacy. Health literacy is considered to be an important patient safety issue, and has been linked to poor medication management. Low health literacy is a risk factor for parent errors in administering medications to their children; difficulty understanding provider medication instructions is likely to contribute to errors.

To address these issues, bilingual (English/Spanish), low literacy, picture-based medication instruction sheets were developed. This study will look at the effectiveness and feasibility of the medication instruction sheet-based intervention as it is used by providers in 2 pediatric emergency department settings, as part of a planned roll out of HELPix within the hospital system. The investigators hypothesize that there will be reduced medication dosing errors, improved medication adherence, reduced hospital revisit rates, and improved provider-parent communication. The investigators also hypothesize that provider technology experience, knowledge, and attitudes, will affect the extent to which providers use the tool.

Parent Inclusion Criteria:

• child <=8 years
• child prescribed a daily dose short course (<14 day) liquid medication

Parent Exclusion Criteria:

• caregiver not legal guardian of child
• caregiver non-English/ Spanish language
• caregiver residency outside of New York City
• hospital admission of child
• child with psychiatric or child protection-related issue
• no listed phone number for caregiver
• person reached by phone not person counseled in the emergency department
• no eligible medication prescribed