5 ways prescribers can improve patient medication adherence
By: Prescryptive Health
Medication adherence is a major medical challenge. Prescribers deal with it daily, but many feel powerless to push for change. It can impact the health of a patient, increase overall healthcare costs, and take up a ton of time, leading to prescriber burnout and affecting the quality of care.
Although the adherence issue isn’t new, the solutions are. Empowering prescription technology gives providers and patients more options, making it easier to stick to a prescription plan.
What is medication adherence?
Unfortunately, nonadherence is common. An estimated half of all patients don’t take their meds as prescribed. This can lead to unnecessary health complications and preventable hospitalizations.
As prescribers know, there’s no one-size-fits-all fix. Every individual is up against personal circumstances that impact their adherence. A patient with dementia might forget to take their meds. A single parent could be struggling to afford their prescriptions. That’s why it’s so important to identify specific barriers for each person and build a plan that works for them.
Prescribers looking for medication adherence tools and new ways to improve the patient experience will find a long list of helpful approaches. We’ve narrowed things down to five.
How to improve medication adherence — 5 things prescribers can do:
Get Personal.
By getting a better idea of a patient’s daily routines, financial situation, accessibility challenges, etc., prescribers are better able to provide specific solutions to individual adherence obstacles.
Write it down.
Improving patient compliance might be as easy as writing things down. Medication calendars, pill cards, and mobile medicine cabinets that help patients organize their prescription schedules can be a huge help in a busy life.
Consider cost.
An estimated 81 million prescriptions never get picked up.* But when patients know the cost before they get to the pharmacy, they won’t be surprised when they get there, and more likely to leave with the medicine they need.
Connect with community pharmacists.
From medication education and dosage information to side-effects discussions, pharmacists are a trusted community resource. They develop and monitor treatment plans and provide the ongoing support patients need to stay on a healthy path.
Tap into Technology
Today’s tech-savvy patients welcome new tools with open arms. With myPrescryptive, patients can compare prescription prices from their mobile phone, consider more ways to pay (cash or insurance), and make the entire pharmacy experience easier. When things are easier, patients are more likely to pick-up and adhere to medications as prescribed.
In addition to prescription technology, a trusted EMR (electronic medical records) system can help prescribers track patient data and keep track of medications over time to ensure a secure and consistent way to monitor and enhance adherence.
The prescription experience can be a hard pill to swallow for many. The reasons why are as unique as the person sitting in a doctor’s office. Listening, understanding, and using the tools available can go a long way in helping patients live healthier.
For more information, check out Prescryptive’s Prescriber Solutions and myPrescryptive.