title: Adherence to medication in the community: audit cycle of interventions to improve the assessment of adherence.
abstract: Aims and methodTo investigate whether medication adherence is monitored during follow-up in out-patient reviews. A retrospective audit was carried out with a sample of 50 follow-up patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Following this, interventions were made prior to the re-audit (including text messaging clinicians and prompt sheets in the out-patient department to encourage adherence discussions).ResultsThere was an improvement on all the standards set for this audit following the interventions. More doctors had discussed medication adherence (62% second cyclev.50% first cycle) with their patient and there was increased discussion and documentation regarding medication side-effects (60% second cyclev.30% first cycle). More clinicians discussed the response to medication (60% second cyclev.46% first cycle).Clinical implicationsTreatment adherence is not regularly monitored or recorded in clinical notes in routine psychiatric out-patient appointments. This highlights the need for regular training to improve practice.
authors.affiliation: Keele University.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farooq
authors.affiliation: Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.
authors.forename: Abid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Choudry