Notebook Initial Studies 2000-2005
Study 1
Setting: inpatient rehabilitation facility
Siebens H, Randall P. The Patient Care Notebook: From Pilot Phase to Success-ful Hospitalwide Dissemination. Jt Comm J Qual Safety 2005; 31:398-405.
July 2005
Significance: This quality improvement study showed that a patient care notebook, provided to patients on admission to a rehabilitation unit to organize their care and to take home, was able to expand from a 15-bed unit pilot study (see Siebens et al 2001) to an entire rehabilitation hospital (over 250 beds). This study, along with others, identified a patient-owned binder to improve communication between clinical teams, patients, and families.
Study 2
Setting: inpatient rehabilitation facility
Siebens H, Weston H, Parry D, Cooke E, Knight R, Rosato R. The Patient Care Notebook -Quality Improvement on a Rehabilitation Unit. Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement. 2001;27:555-567
October 2001
Significance: This quality improvement project tested the benefits of proactively giving patients, on admission to a rehabilitation unit, a well-organized patient care notebook. During the rehabilitation stay, appropriate information was added. Results showed decreased calls back to the unit after discharge. Staff acknowledged that patient education was shifted to occur during the entire hospital stay.
Study 3
Setting: acute care hospital
Siebens H, Aronow H, Edwards D, Ghasemi A. A randomized controlled trial of exercise to improve outcomes of acute hospitalization in older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2000;48:1545-1552.
December 2000
Significance: This first study, generously funded through the John A. Hartford Foundation, showed how a structured, simple exercise program improved function at 1 month after hospital discharge. Importantly, a professional exercise educator of older adults, Diane Edwards MS, provided teaching expertise. She designed the small 3-ringed binder educational notebook with the exercises that we provided each patient for use in their hospital rooms and at home. Because patients really liked the notebook, I could appreciate that an expanded notebook, including medications and other information as well, for all patients, could be valuable.