A Medication Template for Patients with Chronic Medical Conditions to Promote Medication Adherence

In primary care setting, patients with chronic illnesses are prescribed and treated with multiple medications. Almost 50% of them do not take their medications as prescribed and this non-adherence causes poor health outcomes and is associated with additional $100 to $300 billion of avoidable health care costs in the US. Main risk factors for this are: low health literacy, lack of self-confidence in understanding purpose, intent, numeracy, dosing schedules, and memory impairment. Educating patients by writing description of medication, its purpose, side effects and additional information in a medication template can overcome the identified issues and improve medication adherence.