Objective: Patient education regarding post-partum medications was offered inconsistently and utilized hospital-wide educational materials. Dissatisfaction with this was reflected in HCAHPS survey results and comments received on surveys and post-discharge telephone follow-up. The  Quality Nurse Scholar embarked on a project to develop targeted materials and address inconsistent medication education in the post-partum population  to increase patient knowledge and improve patient satisfaction scores in the HCAHPS medication domain.

Design:  Patient centered care, including adequate information regarding medications, positively influences patient outcomes and patient satisfaction.  Educational materials should be easily understandable, tailored to the population and delivered consistently.  Utilization of  established practices like bedside report and modification of current documentation to support practice change improves accuracy of information provided and imbeds new processes in the care routine.

Patients/Participants: All post-partum patients returning HCAHPS patient satisfaction surveys from November 1, 2009 to November 30, 2010; quality nurse scholar, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, clinical pharmacist, post-partum nursing team members.

Methods: Analysis and comparison of HCAHPS survey medication domain scores and comments received  from November 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010 to those received from June 1, 2010 to November 30, 2010.

Implementation Strategies: Quality Nurse Scholar identified project members, reviewed objective and developed timeline for implementation.  Team identified barriers to achieving identified outcomes and discussed alternative initiatives to improve patient education.  Team members developed unit-specific medication list for  patient education and enhanced patient kardex with features  to improve nurse to nurse communication and encourage continuity of consistent education. All post-partum team members were inserviced in the objective of the project, use of the educational tools and revision to the patient kardex.  Project tools implemented in May 2010. 

Results: HCAHPS survey medication domain scores increased from a composite score of 59% in November 2009 to a composite score of 71% in November 2010 illustrating a 12% increase after implementation of the project.  Scores showed improvement each month after implementation.   

Conclusion/Implications for nursing practice: Implementation of unit-specific medication education tools and enhancement to nurse to nurse communication practices effected a significant increase in patient satisfaction scores in the medication domain of the HCAHPS survey.  Nurses insure patients are knowledgeable in all aspects of self-care, including medication administration and side effects.  Examination of current educational practices for appropriateness and effectiveness is strongly encouraged especially with the impending reform encouraging accountable care and associating these practices and patient satisfaction with reimbursement.

Keywords: HCAHPS, Patient Education, Medication