Using Adherence Agreements in Heart Transplant Candidates: What's Important?

The role of the psychosocial team is to assess the patient for candidacy for heart transplantation (HTx) based on accepted psychosocial criteria. When a patient with potentially modifiable high-risk behaviors is identified, an agreement is established that outlines what changes must be made or maintained in order to be considered for HTx. The purpose of this paper is to review the utility of agreements or contracts in the health care setting, and to evaluate the content of our psychosocial agreements in high-risk patients being assessed for HTx.