Delaware County Medical Society Summer 2017 - 7

Finally, an appropriate approach to using teach-back is to
say, "To make sure I covered everything, can you tell me how
you will explain..." (new medicine, next appointment, lab
tests, etc.). The goal is to check how well you explained the
health information - not test the patient. These methods
can help you a) improve patient understanding and adherence, b) decrease call backs and cancelled appointments, and
c) improve patient satisfaction and outcomes.
Some of the positives for using teach-back are that it
can improve patient safety and communication between the
health professional and the patient. It is inexpensive to use. It
can improve the patient's understanding and health outcomes,
all of which contribute to improved patient satisfaction
resulting in improved quality scores with potentially increased
revenue.
What are the cautions regarding teach-back? It requires
time and health professionals may need to allocate extra
consultation time to encourage the patient to 'teach-back'
what they have been told. In the bigger picture it could save
time from fewer call backs. This technique could appear patronizing, and deteriorate into an interrogation or a 'test' for
patients unless used sensitively and appropriately.
It is our hope you are intrigued with the approach of
teach-back and will consider using this simple patient education technique in your practice. If you are worried about the
impact on your schedule, try teach-back with your last patient
of the morning and the afternoon. If you are already using
teach-back, perhaps it is time to step up your game so that
everyone in the office uses the approach when working with
patients. See if there is a difference in call backs or missed
appointments or better yet, your quality metrics improve.

Teach-back could be a missing piece to your smoothly running practice-making good practices, better.
The Delco Health Literacy Coalition and the Delaware
County Medical Society would like to support your efforts to
use teach-back. To that end, the Coalition is in the process of
forming a teach-back consultative team and would be pleased
to speak with you and your practice managers. Please let us
know how we might work together to incorporate teach-back
into your daily practice
The Delco Health Literacy Coalition has worked with one
of the national leaders in Health Literacy, the Institute for
Healthcare Advancement, to provide a 20% discount for
upcoming Health Literacy Trainings to be held in Philadelphia this September.
Advanced Health Communication for Writers A 3-Day Master Class for Creating Effective Materials
Jann Keenan, EdS, and Janet Ohene-Frempong, MS
September 11-13, 2017 - $1,499
Always Use "Teach-Back" Training Program-½ Day Class
Mary Ann Abrams, MD, MPH
Sept. 11, 2017 - $149
Register at https://www.iha4health.org/iha-conference/
health-literacy-training/
(Use code: 20PercentCode to receive the discount.)
Finally, for further reading go to www.cdc.gov/
healthliteracy or www.ahrq.gov for additional resources.

www.delcomedsoc.org

DELAWARE COUNTY MEDICINE & HEALTH

https://www.iha4health.org/iha-conference/ http://www.cdc.gov/ http://www.ahrq.gov http://www.delcomedsoc.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Delaware County Medical Society Summer 2017