Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Item

Telephone Reminders to Improve Medication Adherence in a Community Mental Health Clinic

Authors
Bouh, Julius
Date
2025-05
Embargo until
Language
Book title
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Type
DNP Project
Research Area
Jurisdiction
Other Titles
MEDICATION ADHERENCE IN COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC
See at
Abstract

Problem: Medication non-adherence is a significant problem in a mid-size outpatient psychiatric mental health rehabilitation clinic in a large metropolitan area. It is estimated that approximately 60% of adult patients at this clinic with serious mental illness do not adhere to prescribed psychotropic medication regimen with 25% of them citing forgetfulness as the primary reason. Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to increase psychotropic medication adherence among adult patients with serious mental illness in this outpatient behavioral health services clinic by implementing and measuring the provision of telephone reminders. Methods: A telephone reminder initiative was implemented over 15 weeks in the fall of 2024. Patients included were those who opted to receive telephone reminders. All staff were educated in-person and virtually on the implementation of the telephone reminder project and the community support workers received training in the use of a telephone script. Stakeholders included one psychiatrist, four advanced practice registered nurses, five therapists, 55 community support workers, and 19 clinicians. Data on attempts made, reasons attempts were not made, calls completed, and reasons calls were not completed were collected and analyzed weekly using run charts. Results: Of the roughly 700 eligible patients in this clinic, 500 (71.4%) opted to not participate in this project while 200 (28.6%) opted to participate. Of these patients (n=200), attempted telephone reminder calls were successfully completed for 67.6% (n=135) of them, while they were not completed for 31.5% (n=63) due to unanswered calls or nonfunctional or inactive numbers. For 0.9% (n=2) of the patients, no calls were attempted, with no documented rationale provided by staff. Conclusions: The results demonstrate the feasibility of providing telephone reminders to promote medication adherence. Incorporating telephone reminder calls into staff workflows, establishing call schedules, and offering patients the option to choose call times and frequency could increase participation and promote sustainability.

Data Availibility
Data / Code Location
Table of Contents
Description
Citations
Altmetric:
Series/Report No.
Sponsors
Rights/Terms
Citation
Identifier to cite or link to this item
Scopus Identifier
Embedded videos