Medication adherence is a well-known issue that affects both patients and healthcare providers. The statistics can be staggering, with medications for most chronic conditions having adherence rates in the 50% to 60% range.
Improving medication compliance is an ongoing challenge, but there are strategies you can implement to enhance results. Learn more about how to improve patient compliance with medications.
Understanding Medication Compliance
Medication compliance refers to the extent to which a person’s behaviors correspond with taking a medication. It considers whether the person takes the medication the right number of times a day, as well as whether they continue treatment over time.Medication compliance is a crucial part of healthcare, with nonadherence putting patients at risk.
The importance of medication adherence can’t be overstated. It is essential for meeting therapeutic goals and achieving optimal patient care.
Nonadherence to medication schedules not only wastes the drugs but also results in disease progression and reduced functional abilities. This is especially true for people who have chronic diseases. In turn, nonadherence lowers these patients’ quality of life and increases their need to turn to hospitals and emergency services.
Common Barriers to Medication Compliance
Medication nonadherence can be both intentional and unintentional, though the result is the same.
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Forgetfulness and Busy Schedules
Busy schedules can make it more difficult for people to stick to their medication schedules. They may forget to take a dose and then take more of the drug to make up for it, putting them at significant risk and not doing much for disease management.
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Side Effects and Fear of Adverse Reactions
A serious issue that can prevent medication compliance is the worry about dealing with uncomfortable and unpleasant side effects. To avoid these, patients might skip a dose or take less of the medication.
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Complexity of Medication Regimens
Patients with chronic conditions or those who need to take multiple medications can struggle to follow their treatment regimen. This is a particular issue with people older adults.
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Lack of Understanding and Education
Poor medication adherence also occurs because the patient doesn’t understand how crucial sticking to the treatment plan is. They may not fully grasp how the medication works.
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Financial Constraints
Prescribed medications can be expensive, and not everyone has insurance to cover these costs. Patients who lack the financial stability to regularly purchase their medications are unlikely to have the positive health outcomes they deserve.
Strategies for Improving Patient Medication Compliance
Achieving patient medication compliance requires turning to some interventions. From providing medication education to addressing side effects, healthcare professionals can make a difference in patient outcomes.
1. Simplifying Medication Regimens
Medication regimens for people with chronic diseases tend to be confusing. It’s important for physicians and pharmacists to work together to find medication options that simplify what a patient takes. This can include reducing the number of daily doses or using combination pills.
Simplifying medication regimens has another benefit: reducing high costs. Healthcare costs pose a problem for medication compliance, so reducing the number of medications needed makes it easier for people from all socioeconomic backgrounds to get help.
2. Educating Patients About Their Medications
Ensuring that patients understand what the medications they take are for is a vital step that clinicians and healthcare providers take to improve medication compliance. When a patient truly knows how their medications can make a difference for conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and other serious chronic illnesses, their adherence rates improve. Here are some tips on how to best educate patients about their medications:
- Clear Instructions and Demonstrations
- When prescribing any medications to patients, fully explaining how and when to take them is crucial. This ensures that they don’t hesitate to use them as required.
- Open Dialogue and Addressing Patient Concerns:
- If patients feel comfortable speaking about their worries regarding the medications they take, they can get the reassurance they need to stick to their treatment plan. Ensuring this comfort level requires healthcare providers to welcome questions or worries and take the time to address them.
- Regular Follow-Ups and Monitoring
- Following up on a patient is important to help them adhere to the treatment and improve their clinical outcomes because they won’t feel as alone with their medication management. The follow-ups can be done through the phone or virtually.
3. Utilizing Medication Reminders and Alerts
Patients can set up alarms on their phones or watches. Alternatively, they can receive automated text messages to remind them to take their medications. To save time, they can set up pill boxes at the start of every week to have everything organized.
4. Encouraging Family and Caregiver Support
When your patients receive care from home health providers or family caregivers, you play a crucial role in ensuring safe, effective medication management. Prepackaged medications offer significant advantages that benefit caregivers, patients, and ultimately, treatment outcomes. These systems eliminate the time-consuming tasks of sorting, counting, and organizing pills, allowing caregivers to focus on patient care rather than pharmaceutical logistics. This streamlined approach reduces the risk of dosing errors and ensures medications are administered on schedule—especially valuable given the many responsibilities caregivers already manage.
When caregivers feel adequately informed and supported they’re more likely to ask critical questions about patient care. This open communication fosters better medication adherence and improved patient outcomes, which is the ultimate goal of any treatment plan. By supporting caregivers with effective tools and clear information, you strengthen the entire care continuum.
5. Addressing Side Effects and Concerns
Speaking with patients about the side effects they can experience and offering medication alternatives is another way to help ensure proper medication use. Explain to patients how long they can expect to experience side effects while addressing any concerns they may have.
6. Using Technology in Medication Compliance
Healthcare technology offers innovative ways to support adherence:
- Mobile apps and digital pillboxes remind patients of doses and can even log timestamps for accuracy.
- Telemedicine visits make follow-up easier for patients with mobility issues or tight schedules.
- Electronic health records (EHRs) and patient portals help patients stay connected with their providers, ensuring consistent refills and continuity of care.
7. Providing Convenient Pick-Up
One thing that can truly help your patients is an in-office dispensing system. This may seem like a small addition to you, but it is a huge convenience for your patients. You are saving them a minimum of one hour by eliminating the drive and wait time at the pharmacy.
When your patients must obtain a ride to an appointment with you, they can feel satisfied knowing they do not have to chauffeur from office to office.
Because this system is so easy to use, patients are more likely to follow through in getting their prescription filled, making them more compliant.
8. Provide Adherence Packaging
It is so much easier for patients to follow prepackaged instructions than when medicines are sent home in one bottle. Adherence packaging labels medicine and separates each pill so the patient knows when to take their medicine each day.
Prepackaged medication comes in individual doses. This means you and your patients do not have to worry about medication errors such as underuse or overuse.
With prepackaged medications, the patient can simply separate the individual dose from the rest of the package, open it and consume. Accidental overuse is not an issue, making this process safer for the patient as well.
Because each dose is labeled according to dose and calendar date, underusing prescriptions can be easily avoided also.
9. Providing Refill Convenience
Refills are so much easier for patients when using in-office dispensing. Often, patients call to get their prescriptions refilled at a pharmacy and are told they need doctor approval for a refill. They then make an appointment to see the doctor, who then approves the refill.
Sometimes patients can just call in to the practice and leave a voice mail regarding the needed approval. Either way, this can take days. By then, patients may have run out of their medication and put their health at risk.
With direct dispensing, the patient can call directly into your office to place the request for refill. You can check their records to determine if a refill can be approved. They go by your office and in just a few minutes, pick up their prescription.
The Role of Physician Dispensing In Medication Compliance
Offering In-office dispensing in-office dispensing can dramatically improve adherence by merging convenience and care coordination.
- Immediate access to medications. Patients begin treatment right away without pharmacy delays.
- Improved communication. Providers can explain drug interactions and dosage directly, ensuring understanding from the start.
- Increased convenience. Eliminating the need to travel for prescriptions supports busy patients and reduces drop-offs in care.
How Proficient Rx Can Help With Patient Medication Compliance
As one of the leading physician dispensing companies, Proficient Rx helps streamline the process of getting medications safely from provider to patient. Our comprehensive software solutions make dispensing, monitoring, and compliance tracking easier for healthcare practices.
Learn more about how doctor dispensing works or contact Proficient Rx today to discover how your practice can improve patient adherence and health outcomes.
