Mary, a patient living with cancer, received a check-in call from her clinical pharmacist recently to discuss how she was doing with her medications. During their conversation, Mary revealed that in addition to managing her condition, she was struggling with anxiety and having difficulty getting an appointment with various mental health clinics. She told her pharmacist that she had been waiting almost two weeks for a call-back from a few clinics in the area and was very much in need of support for her anxiety. Since Mary had been stable on her specialty medications for close to a year, her clinical pharmacist focused the remainder of their call on Mary's overall well-being and mental health.

During their conversation, Mary mentioned that she wanted to try some meditation techniques on her own to ease her mind. Hearing Mary’s thoughts and concerns, her clinical pharmacist suggested meditation tapes. Together they reviewed common phrases and exercises used in meditation to help get Mary started. This exercise gave her mind something simple to focus on to help stop her thoughts from running away. 

In the meantime, Mary’s clinical pharmacist reached out to Mary's Pharmacy Liaison to arrange an appointment with a social worker and the wellness support group run by the cancer clinic to make sure Mary got the support she needed through this challenging time. No sooner than 24 hours after her call with her clinical pharmacist, Mary joined a weekly support group and visited two different mental health providers. Mary was incredibly grateful that her pharmacist was able to listen to her needs and create a holistic care approach with the rest of her providers. She was able to get the help she needed very quickly.

Key Takeaways:

• 40+% adherence improvement in high-risk patient populations: Weekly or monthly adherence calls from a trained Clinical Pharmacy Team has proven to keep patients on therapy.
• Integrated Care: 3-5x more patient care interactions leads to higher patient satisfaction rates and fewer lapses in care.
• Reducing re-admission rates: Proactive refill calls to patients by trained Pharmacy Liaisons has proven to reduce re-admission rates among high risk patient populations.

Read a case study on medication adherence improvements in high risk patient populations here: http://ow.ly/yz2i30o5qzm