Shields "Care Corner" Blog

How Treating The Whole Patient Can Improve Quality of Life

Jane recently started filling her specialty medication at her hospital specialty pharmacy. Upon submitting her first prescription, Jane received a courtesy call from the specialty pharmacy's clinical pharmacist to get to know her and discuss her medication routine. After the conversation, and performing a comprehensive medication review with her, Jane's clinical pharmacist discovered that she was taking an inhaler that interacted with her specialty medications.

 

Jane’s clinical pharmacist explained to her that she had been on the wrong regimen for years at her previous pharmacy and it went completely unnoticed. Jane’s inhaler was prescribed to her by her primary care doctor, which was outside the realm of her specialty care providers at the hospital clinic. The clinical pharmacist gave Jane’s primary physician a call anyway and requested that Jane be switched to a different inhaler. Her clinical pharmacist then reached out to Jane’s specialty provider to update him on the medication changes.

 

Because the clinical pharmacist had access to Jane’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and had a detailed conversation with the patient about her medication routine, Jane was able to fix an undetected interaction between her retail and specialty medications. Her clinical pharmacist analyzed more than just one of Jane's chronic condition, treated her with compassion, and was able to act quickly, which saved Jane from suffering through years more of an ineffective treatment plan.

 

Key Takeaways for Your Pharmacy:

  • 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.
  • When a clinical pharmacy team has access to a health system’s EMR, they are able to integrate pharmacy care with clinical care, which reduces prescribing errors and improves medication adherence rates.

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

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