Compliance Is Compliance Is Compliance

11-07-2007 | Categories:

The Hospital Compliance Improvement Project

There is a much to be learned about patient compliance from a recent New York Times article.¹ Some excerpts and paraphrases follow:

“There also seem to be psychological reasons for noncompliance.” “Their incentives, in other words, were not quite aligned with the hospital’s.” Shift to “incentive scheme” of “$10 Starbucks card as reward.” Staff “cajoled” better compliance. “Surreptitiously [monitor and] report” on noncompliance. Use of a “disgusting image” to dramatize consequences of noncompliance. “Compliance shot up to nearly 100 percent.” “But it also highlights how much effort can be required to solve a simple problem.”

Sounds pretty routine (with the exception of the near-100% compliance), doesn’t it?

Well, as it turns out, Selling Soap By Stephen J. Dubner And Steven D. Levitt (New York Times, September 24, 2006) is not about improving adherence to an antibiotic regimen, a diabetic diet, a prenatal care program, or, indeed, any treatment program but is rather about enhancing doctors’ compliance with hand washing protocols.

The congruence of this hospital’s experience in attempting to improve their doctors’ adherence to hand hygiene regulations with efforts to enhance patients’ cooperation with prescribed healthcare is impressive, offering a new and potentially useful perspective on the management of patient compliance.

This worthwhile , which also presents a brief, interesting history of the sometimes awkward relationship between hospitals, germ theory, hand washing, and doctors, is available at ~ Selling Soap ~