Shields "Care Corner" Blog

Improving Medication Adherence in Your High Risk Specialty Patient Population

Susan, a patient living with a chronic condition for most her life, has a track record of poor medication adherence. When she recently came in for a doctor’s appointment, it was clear that her health was failing. Susan spoke with her nurse and explained the issues preventing her from taking medication. Susan’s nurse immediately reached out to the in-clinic Liaison to see if she could help improve Susan’s adherence in some way. While talking with her Liaison, Susan revealed that she was struggling financially and going through a lot in her personal life. Because of these circumstances, Susan explained that she is sometimes unable to get to the pharmacy to pick up her medications. Oftentimes she is too depressed to remember to take her medications. Like many high-risk patients, Susan’s chronic condition has worsened and her overall health has declined.

 

After hearing her story, Susan’s Liaison created a plan to make her medication regimen as easy as possible to follow. Her Liaison explained that the hospital specialty pharmacy offered free delivery and weekly or monthly check-up calls to make sure that Susan is OK and can consistently take her medication.

 

Susan was extremely appreciative of the services her Liaison was offering and has started to see her health improve with the ongoing support of her Liaison. The assistance and encouragement Susan now receives from her Liaison allows her to actively manage her disease so that she can improve her life circumstances. 

Key Takeaways for Your Pharmacy:

  • Improve PDC: Offering fast (within 2 days) and free home delivery will ease the burden of patients who can’t regularly pick up their medications.
  • 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.
  • 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.

See a case study on medication adherence improvements in high risk patient populations: http://ow.ly/8yvA30o4Vd4

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