Source of information: HealthITanalytics – Full article here

Medication adherence interventions that take place at a patient’s retail pharmacy may be able to help patients stay on track with their therapies and reduce the number of preventable hospitalizations.

“Patients receiving a new chronic diagnosis and medication therapy are at very high risk for nonadherence to medication, and this important study demonstrates how a diverse set of pharmacy and digital interventions improves care while reducing total healthcare costs”

Medication non-adherence is one of healthcare’s costliest problems, affecting more than half of patients and bringing millions of dollars in avoidable costs to payers and providers.

“Community pharmacists are uniquely positioned to help mitigate the high risk of medication discontinuation and improve adherence for patients initiating therapy because of their access to prescription refill information and frequent interactions with patients”.

Medication adherence programs that include pharmacists could be a low-cost and effective way to guide patients through chronic disease management while reducing the potential for adverse outcomes such as preventable hospitalizations.