Benefits of Patient Education

Patient education is defined as any set of planned education activities designed to improve patients’ health behaviors and health status. Its main purpose is to maintain or to improve patient health or, in some cases, to slow deterioration. However, patient and family education goes beyond this main purpose. An informed and educated patient can participate in his or her own treatment, improve outcomes, help identify errors before they occur, and reduce his or her length of stay. Other benefits of patient education include the following:

• Increase the patient’s ability to cope with and manage her or her health;
• Facilitate patients’ and families’ understandings of their health status, options, and consequences of care;
• Encourage patients to help with decision making;
• Increase patients’ potential to follow a health care plan;
• Help patients learn behaviors and promote recovers and improve function;
• Increase patient confidence in his or her self care; and
• Decrease treatment complications.

Organizations that provide targeted and appropriate patient and family education can reap other benefits as well, including the following:

• Increase customer satisfaction;
• Compliance with regulatory standards;
• Improved efficiency through cost-effective care; and
• Better informed patients, thus lessening the chance of malpractice claims.

(From "The Joint Commission Guide to Patient and Family Education", Joint Commission Resources, p. 3)