Assessment of the compliance status of chronic care patients and potential impact for various stakeholders

Abstract

Medical compliance is a burning issue in the field of medicine across the globe. Medical compliance maybe defined as the extent to which a doctor’s prescription is followed by the patient without faltering. The issue of medical compliance, while proving a difficult one to control across the world, is much more problematic in India due to the lack of research on its current status and the level to which it compliance is ensured by the doctors and patients alike. The country needs to work on determining these levels, establish the causes for the same and then work towards devising interventions for increasing the compliance levels. The report aims to understand the perspective of the various stakeholders such as doctors, patients, pathology labs and pharmacies. The report relies on the primary research conducted amongst the above stated stakeholders to draw key insights followed by recommendations. It has been observed that the current levels of compliance are very low and as many as 455 of the patients admit to being non-complaint to the prescriptions handed out to them. It is a fact that not many steps are being taken in this direction by any stakeholder but the reasons being claimed by the stakeholders differ and in some cases also contradict. While the doctors state that they do not have the means and the time to ensure compliance and it is the onus of the patients, the patient community says that the doctors have a major role to play in it and that it is an issue misalignment of lifestyle and the course of medication handed out to them. The report concludes with recommendations revolving around database management systems, improving the doctor patient relationships to set the expectations from the treatment on track and patient education amongst other smaller interventions such as reminders etc.