Patient and caregiver tools available in Spanish and French translations

National Transitions of Care CoalitionOct 6 2009

Today, the National Transitions of Care Coalition (NTOCC) released Spanish and French translations of patient/caregiver tools, Taking Care of MY Health Care and My Medicine List. The tools, originally developed in English, provide a resource which patients and their caregivers can use to improve outcomes and satisfaction with the health care they receive. These tools have been available at www.ntocc.org since October 2008. The new translated versions are a proactive step toward meeting the needs of the growing diversity in the U.S. population and also sharing tools with subscribers and associate members who participate globally in the Coalition through www.ntocc.org.

Taking Care of MY Health Care was developed to help patients and their caregivers become more secure in opening a dialogue with their health care providers, providing essential information to their health care providers, and offering a convenient, organized format for keeping their important health care data current. My Medicine List, developed with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Foundation, helps the patient and family keep track of medications, as well as when and how to take their medicines, vitamins, herbs or other minerals they may use.

"These tools will be a huge step in providing much needed health care information in our Spanish speaking communities in the U.S. They will provide patients and their family caregivers valuable help in their native language and in a format which they can understand, put into practice and use to communicate through translators in hospitals and clinics," said Dyan Bryson, National Director of Community Health Partnership at sanofi-aventis U.S. Cheri Lattimer, Executive Director of the Case Management Society of America and Project Director of NTOCC, stated that "French and Spanish are the two most requested translations in our tool portfolios."

Both tools serve as useful guides and encourage patients and their caregivers to be active in their health care. Many, especially senior adults and critically ill patients, find it difficult to communicate with health care providers such as a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or social worker. The information collected from using the tools will be a vital step toward having and keeping a complete and current health care record in preparation for each time the patient visits a hospital, nursing center or other health care facility and even when they require home health care. Taking Care of MY Health Care provides eight questions which the patient or their caregiver can use while talking with their health care providers to better understand their medical conditions, medications, supplements, tests, appointments, equipment for their home, and what they need to know when discharged. Because being sick can affect all areas of our lives, the form also provides a check list to remind them to speak with their health care provider about such things as changes in behavior, memory or thinking, financial or health insurance, relationship/intimacy concerns, spirituality/religion and cultural customs affecting their health care. Taking Care of MY Health Care also has a medicine list on the reverse side so that all information is kept in one piece.