MINNESOTA ALLIANCE FOR PATIENT SAFETY (MAPS)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Loveland
(651)248-8534
NEW SMART PHONE APP HELPS MINNESOTA PATIENTS STAY SAFE
Patients Encouraged To Take Charge of Their “Patient Safety To-Do List”
Saint Paul, Minn., October, 6 2014 --The Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS) today
announced the release of a new smart phone app that helps patients follow a “to-do list” to keep
them healthy and safe on their health care journey.
With support from the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA), MAPS has developed a public
education campaign called “You: Your Own Best Medicine” to help patients do the things they
need to do to stay safe, particularly during transitions between various stages of care.
Research shows that many patient safety problems occur during such transitions, such as
between the hospital and home, or primary care and specialty care.
Specifically, the Own Best Medicine campaign encourages patients to take charge of four
simple evidence-based patient safety to-dos: 1) Keep a comprehensive medications list and
share it with all members of the extended health care team; 2) Gather test results in a central
location and share them with all members of the health care team; 3) Write a list of
recommended follow-up steps, and act on them; and 4) Keep a list warning signs associated
with conditions, and promptly address on any problems.
“While the average patient gets an overwhelming 70-pages of
hospital discharge instructions, this to-do list keeps things brief
and doable,” said Marie Dotseth, Executive Director of MAPS.
“Our pre-campaign research told us that patients are willing to
get more involved in coordinating their health care, but they just
aren’t sure what to do.”
MAPS stresses that the Own Best Medicine patient safety todos can be easily accomplished with readily available paper,
pens, and folders. But for those interested in tapping into
smart phone technology, MAPS developed a simple smart
phone app to coordinate the four to-dos.
Using the free Own Best Medicine app, a patient can manage
their patient safety to-do list. For example, they can snap a
photo of a new medication and add that image, and/or a text
description, to their smart phone-hosted medication list. That
list is then readily available to share with the patient’s extended
health care team. They can also store a photo of a test result
for future reference, or set a reminder so that their phone can prompt them at a later date to
follow-up on a health care providers’ recommendations.
The iPhone- and Droid-compatible app is available for free at the Own Best Medicine
campaign website, www.ownbestmedicine.mn.
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“It doesn’t matter if patients prefer to use paper or an app, the important thing is that they take
charge of monitoring, documenting, and sharing their health information,” said Dotseth. “This is
all about avoiding life-threatening safety problems associated with communications
breakdowns.”
The to-do list is based on research about patient safety problems studied by a MAPS-convened
advisory panel of health care experts, particularly problems that occur between stages of care,
such as when a patient switches health care providers or health settings. Research finds that
many patient safety problems occur when health care providers have incomplete information
about a patient’s history of medications and/or diagnostic test results.
Patients sometimes assume that health care providers share all of their information, but all too
often that doesn’t happen. For example, a Johns Hopkins Hospital study of referrals by 122
pediatricians in 34 states found that information was sent to the specialist in only 49% of cases.
The referring physician received feedback from the specialist only 55% of the time. Therefore,
to ensure everyone on the health care team is fully informed, patients need to proactively share
their medical history.
“Patients shouldn’t assume that today’s doctor knows what last week’s doctors learned about
them,” said Dotseth. “Patients need to walk their health care team through their medications,
symptoms and test results, because it could very well save their life.”
Serious problems also occur when patients don’t do the things their health care providers ask of
them. For instance, a study from the Northeastern Ohio Network found that 14% of patients
never make recommended appointments with specialists. Another study found that about 31%
of prescriptions go unfilled. The phone app helps patients better manage such tasks.
“Patients and care givers both have room for improvement,” said Dotseth. “This campaign isn’t
about casting blame, it’s about giving patients tools to stay safe.”
The Own Best Medicine campaign will be promoted through a series of radio and print
advertisements, and via a number of health care providers who have volunteered to distribute
paper-based patient safety packets to patients. In coming days, the app will also be formatted
to work with tablet computer devices.
The Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS) is a statewide patient safety coalition founded
in 2000. MAPS members include more than 100 organizations, including health care
associations, health care organizations, consumers, employers, health plans and state agencies
and boards.
END
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