Adherence Solutions
Maintaining a medical regiment is one of the key aspects of health improvement, however, many patients in the U.S. fall short, refilling prescriptions and never taking them or simply ceasing their medication all together. The treatments are critical, especially in the case of high risk patients. We assist in eliminating the barriers that are often the cause of non-adherence and cause a ‘disconnect’ in medication therapies. By coordinating the patient/prescriber/pharmacy efforts, we create a bridge that helps to assure communication, information and a correct continued therapy.
Non-adherence to medication therapies have been associated with increased illness and higher medical costs. When a patient deters from the path of their medication, it has been estimated that it causes more physician visits, increasing patient costs of around $2,000 per year and $100 billion dollars annually for additional hospital visits. Part of our mission is to improve patient medication adherence and thereby reduce hospital readmissions and contribute to the path of patient wellness. We work with individual patients, facilities and organizations to create customized solutions that are specific to the patient needs.
Advantage Healthcare Services takes medication adherence as a priority concern to ensure compliancy. We coordinate with the patient to help in medication therapy management in a broad scale method that addresses the patient needs. Our proactive integrative approach assures that the patient maintains their medication course. With a bi-lingual staff, we work extensively with facilities and organizations to help in adherence improvement and have a collaborative healthcare consulting program that incorporates all medical professionals in the patient care process. Our goal is to participate in a critical role to bridge fragmented care and act as a solution for communication between healthcare teams.
A recent study regarding pharmacy participation in medication adherence resulted in findings: “suggesting that pharmacist interventions for patients starting new medications improve adherence by more than 3%, representing an aggregated cost savings of $164 per patient over six months.” It continued to state that pharmacy participation in medication adherence programs resulted in: “a nearly 2% lower hospital admissions and nearly 3% lower emergency room visits, equating to $38 lower emergency room costs per patient, in patients who received a pharmacist intervention.”
With a variety of services, including a consultant/liaison advocate team, Advantage Healthcare Services places the focus on personalized medication management therapy combined with an array of patient concentric target programs to help in guidance for a path to health improvement. Our attention encompasses the high level requirements of medication therapy management for complex disease state patients. Our bedside delivery service assists to ensure that patients receive their prescribed medication without interruption. This is a requirement in today’s health circumstances to eliminate the potential of patient non-adherence that can cause elevated medical conditions. Our methodology of monitoring and maintaining contributes to patient wellness while reducing the readmission costs.
We have crafted our model to address the various parts of a patient’s life that can have an effect on their physical and emotional perspectives for medication. We believe that education, combined with outreach and a personal touch not only differentiates us but empowers a patient to achieve their health goals. AHCS coordinates our pharmacy services with many of the elements of the patient wellness cycle.
