Authors (including presenting author) :
HO HW(1),KWAN HY(1),LING SO(1),NG PK(1),TANG WK(1),YIP KC(1),CHAN TF(1),CHOI PY(1),TSE SF(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kowloon Hospital
Introduction :
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is the gold standard treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). Consistent treatment adherence could significantly improve patient’s quality of life, public safety, and reduce cardiovascular risk and all-cause mortality. Machine intolerance is the major hindrance to treatment acceptance. Adequate patient education and support in identifying a best-fit mask and a suitable machine are efficacious in improving patients’ acceptance to treatment and thus their adherence. Traditionally, patient information was provided by pamphlets which are not comprehensive. Although resources are readily available on the internet nowadays, most patients found it hard to retrieve precise information, especially among those with low digital literacy.
Objectives :
To improve patient education and support by providing them with an easily and instantly accessible link to up-to-date and precise information on the disease and treatment options in Hong Kong.
Methodology :
Reliable and precise information on OSA and treatment options could be accessible from the internet website: Medical Device Administrative Control System (MDACS), which is being run and governed by the Hong Kong government (Department of Health). It also allowed access to authorized dealers in Hong Kong to avoid purchasing the machines from parallel import. Starting from March 2021, a Quick Response (QR) code to MDACS was provided to all OSA patients after CPAP titration study, during patient education session delivered by sleep nurses. To ensure that patients could access information using the QR code properly, nurses would demonstrate the process step-by-step with detailed explanation until patients could perform return demonstration smoothly. A survey targeting OSA patients and staff working in Sleep Laboratory of Department of Respiratory Medicine, Kowloon Hospital (KH RMD) was conducted between March 2021 to June 2021 to evaluate the effectiveness of this new policy in patient education.
Result & Outcome :
During the study period, 60 patients and 22 staff were invited to participate in the satisfaction survey with a 100% response rate. All patients agreed that the QR code was extremely helpful in allowing them to access up-to-date and precise information from reliable web-page and in decision making on purchasing CPAP machines from local authorized CPAP service providers. All staff reflected that the use of QR code facilitated efficient delivery of patient education. And some staff reflected that it may be difficult for elderly patient to use the QR code, more instruction by staff is required.
With technological development, the model of patient education should be modified to tailor patients’ need. Providing QR code to patients for accessing precise and updated information from the internet from a reliable source helps improve staff and patient satisfaction and enhanced patient empowerment before through proactive searching of information relevant to their own disease and exploration of available treatment options before commencing treatment. That helps building rapport between patient and nurses, thus making a good start in patient education which ultimately helps improve patient acceptance and subsequent treatment adherence to CPAP.
