TIHCQE board member Elena Marin, MD, chief executive officer at Su Clinica Familiar, a nonprofit health clinic in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, says commu- nication is the key to health care literacy, and it often correlates to health dispar- ity. She says minorities and patients with low levels of education are less likely to understand the importance of taking medicine for high blood pressure or watching out for early symptoms of stroke, for example. “More minorities die or are disabled
by strokes or heart attacks,” she said. “Health literacy is an important compo- nent to address in these populations.” Dr. Marin facilitates communication with her patients by holding educational events at Su Clinica, such as medication therapy management, during which pa- tients with multiple prescriptions meet one-on-one with a pharmacist to discuss dose schedules, side effects, and drug interactions. “What we have found is that patients
are not taking their medications the way they are prescribed on the bottle,” she said.
Sometimes, patients can’t afford to
refill the medication as often as they should; other times, patients just can’t read the instructions, she says. Dr. Marin says when patients sit face- to-face with a pharmacist, they are more likely to open up and admit they are not following the recommended dosage. Medication therapy management allows pharmacists to explain doctors’ instruc- tions and the risks patients run if they do not take the drugs correctly.
Taking responsibility Outreach programs like Walk With a Doc promote health literacy and encourage patients to take some responsibility for their health, Dr. Pike says. “We can’t go home and make sure patients eat right,” she said. “And yet nobody has really found a way to make patients accountable or responsible for their health.” TMA President Austin King, MD, an Abilene otolaryngologist, says most of his patients are tobacco users, and many refuse to take responsibility for their health by quitting smoking. He says if
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