Medicine Compliance
August 20, 2012
With greater health demands,
increasing complexity of medicines
and poor compliance, globally
pharmacists are taking on a
greater role in assisting patients
with managing their medicines.
In Australia pharmacists have
played a key role in various
patient support programs.
The interventions will vary
from a simple intervention, such
as adjusting patient’s technique
in using a device to a more
complex intervention, where the
pharmacist may need to explore
patient’s barriers to compliance,
which may be based on the
patient’s perception of the drug
or lack of understanding of the
drug or their condition.
Over the past three years
GuildCare Pharmacies have
delivered various types of
compliance programs, which
target patients who are taking
less than seven out of ten doses
are designed to explore patient’s
barriers to adherence to the
prescribed regimen.
They are simple two session
programs, where in session one
the pharmacist and the patient
discuss the condition, the
medicine and set goals for the
next session where they review
the goals and make any
necessary adjustments.
A study published in the
Australian Pharmacist ‘Impact of
the Mirixa Program on Patient
Compliance to Therapy’ showed
an increase in compliance by 1.5
scripts per patient per year,
which also translated to
increased script volume for the
participating pharmacies.
Dr M. Ortiz et al; ‘Impact of the Mirixa
Program on Patient Compliance to Therapy’;
Australian Pharmacist Vol 30; 244 -248.
This
week’s contributor
is Roma Cecere,
GM for Patient
Care division of GuildLink.
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