Patient education leads to better care for heart patients.

The staff of a heart and circulatory disease program of a State department of health conducted a special project at a city hospital which showed that a well-organized treatment and education program for patients with congestive heart failure increased the patient's knowledge of his disease, medication, and diet as well as his adherence to a prescribed regimen, and significantly reduced the number o;, readmissions. A multidisciplinary team from several agencies with a coordinated educational approach was more effective in treatment than the same agencies providing uncoordinated treatment but similar care. An "educational prescription" devised by the entire team for each patient became the focal point and format for decisionmaking; it was the official mode of treatment and part of the patient's chart. The low level of formal education among the patients necessitated involvement of other family members in treatment, and weekly group sessions were attended voluntarily by patients as an educational supplement to the "prescription." (Author/AJ)