Patient Preferences for Receiving Education on Venous Thromboembolism Prevention – A Survey of Stakeholder Organizations

Abstract

ImportanceVenous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients and is largely preventable. Strategies to decrease the burden of VTE have focused on improving clinicians’ prescribing of prophylaxis with relatively less emphasis on patient education.ObjectiveTo develop a patient-centered approach to education of patients and their families on VTE: including importance, risk factors, and benefit/harm of VTE prophylaxis in hospital settings.Design, Setting and ParticipantsThe objective of this study was to develop a patient-centered approach to education of patients and their families on VTE: including importance, risk factors, and benefit/harm of VTE prophylaxis in hospital settings. We implemented a three-phase, web-based survey (SurveyMonkey) between March 2014 and September 2014 and analyzed survey data using descriptive statistics. Four hundred twenty one members of several national stakeholder organizations and a single local patient and family advisory board were invited to participate via email. We assessed participants’ preferences for VTE education topics and methods of delivery.Participants wanted to learn about VTE symptoms, risk factors, prevention, and complications in a context that emphasized harm. Although participants were willing to learn using a variety of methods, most preferred to receive education in the context of a doctor-patient encounter. The next most common preferences were for video and paper educational materials.ConclusionsPatients want to learn about the harm associated with VTE through a variety of methods. Efforts to improve VTE prophylaxis and decrease preventable harm from VTE should target the entire continuum of care and a variety of stakeholders including patients and their families.

Patient values and preferences regarding VTE disease: a systematic review to inform American Society of Hematology guidelines

“…A set of 56 records identified from electronic database searches was selected for inclusion, and 3 additional studies [80][81][82] were identified by checking references included in a previously published guideline on the same topic. 83 Overall, we included 44 quantitative studies, [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][80][81][82] 14 qualitative studies, [66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79] and 1 study with both types of evidence 54 (Figure 1). Fourteen of the included studies reported patients' values or utilities, [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] 34 nonutility studies use...…”

“…41,42,49,50,[52][53][54][55][56][57]59,60,[62][63][64]82 Six of those studies evaluated the preference for injections or oral administration routes in 1645 medical or surgical patients receiving prophylaxis. 49,55,56,60,62,64 There was a clear preference for oral medication (range, 60-86% of patients) over subcutaneous injection, because it is easier to take and to integrate into the daily routine, and it is also perceived as less painful and less expensive. For participants preferring the injection route, the stated reasons for the preferences included faster onset of action, avoidance of pill burden, and ease of use (1645 participants from 6 studies; moderate certainty).…”

The Johns Hopkins Venous Thromboembolism Collaborative: Multidisciplinary team approach to achieve perfect prophylaxis

“…Using a modified Delphi method, we engaged patient stakeholders from the 4 collaborating organizations to build consensus on patient‐centered VTE education methods. Input from this Delphi assessment was used to build educational materials including paper brochures published in 8 different languages and a 10‐minute educational video filmed by an Oscar‐winning documentary director featuring both clinicians and patients relating their VTE experience and the importance of VTE prevention . These educational materials are available for public use (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/armstrong_institute/improvement_projects/VTE/) and are being used in a trial of a patient‐centered intervention bundle to reduce rates of VTE prophylaxis nonadministration.…”

“…Input from this Delphi assessment was used to build educational materials including paper brochures published in 8 different languages and a 10-minute educational video filmed by an Oscar-winning documentary director featuring both clinicians and patients relating their VTE experience and the importance of VTE prevention. 24 These educational materials are available for public use (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/arm-strong_institute/improvement_projects/VTE/) and are being used in a trial of a patient-centered intervention bundle to reduce rates of VTE prophylaxis nonadministration. We also conducted a cluster-randomized trial to compare different approaches to nurse education (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02301793).…”

Awareness of antibiotics use among Omani patients

“…This is consistent with Arab culture, [29] in which doctors in most of the time are ranked at the top with respect to authority and knowledge related to healthcare issues. Similarly, Popoola [30] found that 84% of the participants in their study would like to receive education about their health issues by talking to a physician. Noticeably, the findings of the current study indicated that social media has a potential contribution in patients' education about antibiotics use, though participants preferred other means of receiving education.…”