Purpose: Adherence to medications is crucial for transplant patients as missing medications can result in increased risk of rejection and graft loss. Augmented education may help improve patient understanding of transplant medication regimens and increase adherence. Methods: A clinic-based, post-discharge medication education program was instituted at our center in addition to the standard post-transplant inpatient education. Post-kidney transplant patients and caregivers received additional verbal and written education on medications, including immunosuppressive and anti-infective agents, infection prevention, and overall post-transplant care from the ambulatory transplant pharmacist and nurse coordinator. This education session typically occurred during the first or second clinic visit once the patient was discharged from their transplant admission. A questionnaire was utilized prior to the education session to evaluate the patient's baseline knowledge regarding medication and post-transplant care. A second questionnaire was completed post-education to test for increased knowledge and then again at approximately one month to evaluate knowledge retention. Results: A total of 114 patients were educated over a two year period utilizing this protocol. Sixty three patients completed all three questionnaires at the specified times and were included in the analysis. When evaluating the characteristics of the kidney donors, 21 (33%) were standard criteria deceased donors, 18 (29%) were donation after cardiac death donors (DCD), 2 (3%) were extended criteria donors (ECD), 10 (16%) were living unrelated donors, 10 (16%) were living related donors, and 2 (3%) were simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants. Most patients came to the visit with at least one support person, but 9 patients (14%) were alone when educated. Education occurred in an average of 5 days (± 6.4 days) after discharge. The average pre-education score was 81.5 ± 12.5%. When compared to the pre-education score, the immediate post-score significantly improved to 96.5 ± 5.5% (p=0.03). The one month post-score remained higher than baseline at 95 ± 8.7% though it was not statistically significant (p=0.1). Conclusion: Supplemental education delivered post-discharge by the pharmacist and nurse coordinator resulted in improved patient scores and knowledge of post-transplant medications. Further studies would be beneficial to assess for a correlation between patient test scores and clinical outcomes.

CITATION INFORMATION: Sulejmani N, Albanna H, Rendulic T, Summers B, Jantz A. Clinic-Based Medication Education Pilot Program. Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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