Factors affecting criteria met by hospital-based patient-education programs: a Michigan experience.

A patient-education program model with 18 criteria was refined into a survey instrument and sent to 217 Michigan hospitals. Of these, 181 hospitals and one free-standing clinic responded, with 47 indicating they had no applicable programs and 135 providing data on 281 existing patient-education programs. A mean (+/- SD) of 12.1 +/- 3.9 criteria were met. The range included two programs that met only one criterion and 15 that met all 18. After it was established that the criteria operated independently of each other, six factors were analyzed to observe their impact on the number of criteria met by the 281 programs. Analysis of variation (ANOVA) showed that presence and type of program coordinator accounted for 17% of explained variance, subject for 8%, hospital size for 4.4%, existence of a defined budget for 4%, and geographic location for 3%. Because of unequal numbers, the full-time/part-time coordinator factor was not included in the ANOVA. More than one third of the variance affecting numbers of criteria met by patient-education programs was explained by these factors.

A model for assessing patient education.

Patient education is becoming a more visible activity. The Michigan Hospital Association and the Michigan state health planning and resource development agency (Office of Health and Medical Affairs) agreed to jointly pursue a patient-education project to determine its effectiveness. The overall goal of the project is to determine generically what constitutes a quality hospital-based patient-education program. This paper focuses on the development of a model for assessing patient-education programs. Through a multistep process 18 criteria were ultimately selected to serve for patient-education assessment. An analysis and description of the utility of the criteria is presented. The need for establishing and maintaining quality in patient-education programs has been established. The criteria developed for the project offer the potential of meeting this need.