Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jul 15;12(3):113-123.
doi: 10.17294/2330-0698.2129. eCollection 2025 Summer.

Patient Information Needs During Ambulatory Medication Changes: A Qualitative Study

Elaine Giletta  1 , Vanessa B Hurley  2 , Yushi Yang  3 , Jessica L Schwartz  4 , Rabia Jalalzai  1 , Nicole L Mollenkopf  3   5 , Raquel Mayne  6 , Samantha I Pitts  3   4
Affiliations

Patient Information Needs During Ambulatory Medication Changes: A Qualitative Study

Elaine Giletta et al. J Patient Cent Res Rev. .

Abstract

Purpose: We performed interviews with patients and caregivers to explore whole-person, whole-regimen information needs at times of routine outpatient medication changes. We categorized information needs in this relatively unstudied context and identified which needs were commonly recognized as insufficiently met.

Methods: We explored the content of the semi-structured interviews, which involved nine patients and two caregivers of pediatric patients, all of whom experienced a recent medication change in the outpatient setting of a large urban academic healthcare system. We used inductive thematic analysis to organize information needs into categories to identify key information gaps.

Results: We identified five categories of patient information needs: (1) medication self-administration, (2) clinical reasoning informing the medication change, (3) pre-medication change expectations, (4) post-medication change behaviors, and (5) patient role and responsibilities in safe medication management. Through these categories, we highlighted five themes from which participants frequently described receiving insufficient information: (1) medication history, (2) anticipatory guidance about possible adverse effects, (3) self-monitoring and self-managing instructions, (4) safe information seeking, and (5) safe disposal of surplus medications.

Conclusions: Our findings illustrate patient information needs at times of ambulatory medication changes and identify vulnerabilities where these needs may be insufficiently met. Providing tailored information at times of ambulatory medication changes might support patient engagement with medication safety practices and ultimately reduce patient harm associated with adverse medication events. Further research is needed to confirm these gaps in larger studies and examine this question within special populations, including pediatric caregivers and patients with limited English proficiency.

Keywords: ambulatory care; medication self-management; patient information needs; patient perspectives; qualitative research.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships, which may be considered as potential competing interests: EG, YY, RJ, NLM, JLS, and SIP received funding support from AHRQ R21 HS26584, which was the primary funding for the parent CancelRx evaluation study. During her contributions to this study, EG received funding support from the Dean’s Year of Research and Primary Care Leadership Track at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. During her contributions to this study, JLS was supported by a T32 award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (5T3HL007180, PI: Maruthur). The institute was not involved in conducting this research or in the preparation of this article. JLS is supported as a co-investigator on a research project funded by Novo Nordisk Inc, the primary aim of which is to create and pilot a clinical decision support tool for use by primary care providers during discussion about obesity. JLS is also supported by the Ardmore Institute to perform an implementation study evaluating an employee health program for hypertension management. Neither of these projects are addressed or referenced in this manuscript. VBH and RM report no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Participant recruitment and engagement.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Five broad information need categories and their definitions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Sharma AE, Rivadeneira NA, Barr-Walker J, et al. Patient engagement in health care safety: an overview of mixed-quality evidence. Health Aff (Millwood) 2018;37:1813–20. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0716. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sharma AE, Huang B, Del Rosario JB, et al. Patient and caregiver factors in ambulatory incident reports: a mixed-methods analysis. BMJ Open Qual. 2021;10:e001421. doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2021-001421. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ryan R, Santesso N, Lowe D, et al. Interventions to improve safe and effective medicines use by consumers: an overview of systematic reviews. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014(2014):CD007768. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007768.pub3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. O’Connor PJ. Improving medication adherence: challenges for physicians, payers, and policy makers. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:1802–4. doi: 10.1001/archinte.166.17.1802. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bedell SE, Jabbour S, Goldberg R, et al. Discrepancies in the use of medications: their extent and predictors in an outpatient practice. Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:2129–34. doi: 10.1001/archinte.160.14.2129. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources