260962 Measuring the Outcomes of Two Community Pharmacy Based Medication Adherence Programs

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 2:30 PM - 2:42 PM

Aglaia Panos, Pharmacist with Pharm D , Non profit consumer advoacte organization, Pharmacy Planning Service, Inc, San Rafael, CA
     
Non-adherence to taking medication appropriately has been shown to result in $100 billion each year in unnecessary hospitalizations in the United States. In response the U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and the National Consumers League launched “Script your Future,” a 3-year national campaign to improve medication adherence. In response to this campaign we selected two pharmacies to develop partnerships between patients, pharmacists, and physicians. Our goal for this active partnership is to provide medication therapy management (MTM) services to the patients. The pharmacist will also promote medication adherence by helping the patient better understand their medication regimen.

MTM is a pharmacist patient-centered encounter whereby the pharmacist closely reviews the patient's medications and discusses it with the physician and the patient. Patients that are high risk with multiple disease states, have high annual medication spending, or have potential mis-management of medications are identified for an annual comprehensive medication review. Once the patients are identified the pharmacy students, under the supervision of the pharmacist, will review the medication regimen and make recommendations to the physician. There will be a monthly follow up for four months on each patient.

We will be evaluating the success of the program using the patients as their own controls, e.g. by evaluating their blood pressure, A1C values, use of rescue medications for asthma, and emergency visits. Health stats will be collected for a given patient to determine whether their health care outcomes are better after MTM than they were before the MTM services.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Non-adherence to taking medication appropriately has been shown to result in $100 billion each year in unnecessary hospitalizations in the United States. In response the U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and the National Consumers League launched “Script your Future,” a 3-year national campaign to improve medication adherence. In response to this campaign we selected two pharmacies to develop partnerships between patients, pharmacists, and physicians. Our goal for this active partnership is to provide medication therapy management (MTM) services to the patients. The pharmacist will also promote medication adherence helping the patient better understand their medication regimen. 

 MTM is a pharmacist patient-centered encounter whereby the pharmacist closely reviews the patient’s medications and discusses it with the physician and the patient. Patients that are high risk with multiple disease states, have high annual medication spending, or have potential mis-management of medications are identified for an annual comprehensive medication review. Once the patients are identified the pharmacy students, under the supervision of the pharmacist, will review the medication regimen and make recommendations to the physician. There will be a monthly follow up for four months on each patient. We will be evaluating the success of the program using the patients as their own controls, e.g. by evaluating their blood pressure, A1C values, use of rescue medications for asthma, and emergency visits. Health stats will be collected for a given patient to determine whether their health care outcomes are better after MTM than they were before MTM.

Keywords: Health Advocacy, Associated Health Professionals

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a practicing pharmacist for over 30 years. I have taught geriatric pharmacy at nursing home setting, nursing schools and at the college of pharmacy at Touro University. I precept students from the college of pharmacy who are doing their rotations with me at Pharmacy Planning Services, a non profit consumer-pharmacist advocate organization for two years. We are involved in community outreach and have been conducting MTM services to seniors in the community.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3302.0: Community-Based Long-Term Care