An important role of medical assisting is providing information and instructions to patients. Providing timely and accurate information regarding medications, health maintenance, medical equipment, and supplies is essential. You will also be responsible for interpreting your office policies and practices to patients. This section focuses on the role of the medical assistant in educating and instructing patients, acting as a patient navigator, and applying the Patient-Centered Medical Home concept.
In the hectic medical office, you may find that your time for providing effective instructions and health education to patients is limited. You can resolve this problem by using every encounter and discussion with a patient as a chance to provide health information. During the initial health interview, you are likely to hear about the patient’s health history and the nature of her unique health problems. These health problems, along with your knowledge of age-specific health risks and occupational risks, will give you a starting point for patient instruction. Remember that individual patient instruction will need to be based on the person’s learning style, age and developmental stage, motivation to learn, emotional state, and any barriers to communication. Effective education must also consider the time limitations for your instructions, the teaching environment, and the availability and level of teaching materials.
A systematic approach to patient instruction begins with assessing the information needs of the patient, determining the existing knowledge of his state of health or illness, and determining his learning style. Some patients prefer to read written articles, pamphlets, or brochures. Others respond to verbal instruction or teaching audio or videotapes. For important information, you may reinforce instruction by providing information in more than one format. Having a well-stocked set of patient instruction materials that feature colorful charts, illustrations, and simple explanations will support your patient-instruction efforts. Drug companies, health-related organizations such as the American Heart Association, and medical equipment providers are often able to give you patient-teaching materials for the office and to distribute to patients. In working with printed material, you will want to review it for timeliness and accuracy. It should be easy to read and avoid technical language or information that is too detailed for patients to understand. The level of content that is most effective is written to the eighth-grade reading level, which will be a fit for all but highly educated patients who may indeed seek information from medical texts and references. You want to make sure that you review any supplemental patient instruction information with the patients or their caregivers and avoid simply handing the material over and feeling that your instructions are over.
In addition to determining the patient’s learning style and learning needs, you will want to set priorities for your patient teaching. If a patient has multiple health issues or a complex treatment regime, you will need to prepare a teaching plan and provide the information in reasonable amounts based on consideration of your time, the patient’s ability to comprehend, and the amount of information that needs to be presented. Creating a teaching checklist for patients of different ages and common disease and health states will help you organize your teaching sessions and materials. A checklist will ensure that you have covered the major areas that the patient will need to take care of her health needs between appointments.
As a medical assistant, you will want to reinforce any instructions provided by the physician in your office. You also will want to encourage the patient to understand his disease state, health risks, and health behaviors, and participate actively in his own health. You will need to adapt your patient instruction to overcome any disability or limits to communication that the patient is experiencing. Also remember that teaching requires repetition and review for reinforcement.
Healthy living and health maintenance is a fundamental goal of health care providers. Providing patients with information about nutrition, healthy diets, food choices, and therapeutic diets are one aspect of health maintenance instruction. Patients can benefit from information about exercise and physical activity designed to maintain fitness and manage weight. Some patients will need to be instructed on progressive activity-upgrading schedules following surgery or hospitalization. Do not assume that your patient will understand the meaning of vague or general instructions such as “take it easy.” If any limits in activity are needed, be specific about the exact nature of the activity to avoid, for what duration, and when it can be resumed. Discussing the need for sleep and rest is another aspect of health teaching. Determining the patient’s normal sleeping patterns may be covered at the initial interview, and it can be discussed again at follow-up appointments. You may want to use a healthy lifestyle patient log and include the patient in being responsible for recording data such as her weight, physical activity, pertinent health signs and symptoms, and medication schedules. Having the patient record this information between office visits will reinforce your health maintenance teaching. Remember to include age, gender, and health risk factors in your teaching. Provide instruction about any specific health-screening tests that are appropriate, such as mammograms, colonoscopies, or TB testing. Assist the physicians in your office by reminding them of patient-specific health maintenance activities and interventions so they are completed according to recommended schedules.
As medical technology advances, more and more medical devices and equipment are being used by patients in their homes. Equipment can range from standard wheelchairs and hospital beds to complex home infusion pumps and dialysis machines. Be aware of the medical equipment providers in your community, what they can provide, and what level of customer service and support they offer to patients. You need to know and explain associated costs of the equipment and the payment options available to the patient.
It will be important for you to provide your patients with clear and concise information about your standard office policies. These are likely to include your office hours, as well as the methods of reaching a provider in an emergency or when the office is closed. You will want to make sure that patients are informed of their responsibilities for payment and what forms of payment are accepted in your office. Patients should be able to understand and interpret their bill and know who to contact with questions or concerns regarding payment or insurance coverage. You should review your expectations for cancelled and no-show appointments and any limitations on walk-in or last-minute appointments. Many practices provide a patient brochure or handout that clearly lists these policies. Having this material ready and available to patients will help ensure that policies are followed and that the office runs smoothly. You may design a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) if you find that you are routinely asked about a certain item or issue.
The
Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model is an initiative designed to improve
health care in America through the reorganization of primary care. It involves
five separate attributes:
The medical assistant often is the first person the patient sees at check-in and the one who is there to prepare the patient for exams and obtain a chief complaint or history. Taking the attributes of the PCMH model into consideration and the relationship the medical assistant has developed with the patient, the medical assistant is often called upon to function in the role of patient navigator. In this role, the medical assistant is responsible for providing information to patients and fostering empowerment so patients can make decisions in their best interest. Medical assistants can serve as the liaison between the provider and other members of the health care team, and the medical assistant is often the one to actively communicate with the patient.