Drug interactions cause up to 3.8% of all hospital admissions in the United States. Adverse medical reactions from drug interactions not only risk patients’ lives but also put a strain on an already burdened healthcare system. One of the most effective ways of preventing these adverse effects is by focusing on medication education.
Helping patients understand the side effects of the medications they take, as well as the dangers of Rx drug interactions, can improve patient safety while ensuring the treatments they receive are as effective as possible. Learn more about how healthcare professionals can make a difference in keeping patients informed.
Understanding Prescription Drug Interactions
When helping patients avoid potential interactions, it is essential that you explain what interactions are and the types of interactions they might experience.
What Are Drug Interactions?
A drug interaction is a reaction between two or more drugs or between a drug and a supplement, food, or condition. These interactions can affect the way that a drug works, sometimes leading to unwanted side effects. It’s a problem that could occur with both prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications.
Types of Drug Interactions
Drug interactions can be drug-drug, drug-food, or drug-condition. Each of these poses its own challenges and requires strategies to help patients keep track of medications.
Drug-Drug Interactions
Drug-drug interactions happen when two or more drugs react with one another. It can result in a duplication effect, in which the impacts of one or more of the medications are enhanced, and the side effects are intensified. It often occurs when patients take more than one drug that has the same active ingredient. Usually, it involves at least one over-the-counter medicine.
Drug-drug interactions can also cause one or both of the medications to be less effective. Additionally, one drug may alter how the body absorbs, metabolizes, distributes, and excretes the other.
Drug-drug interactions are a serious concern for people who see more than one doctor for a variety of conditions and use more than one pharmacy to fill their prescriptions. Physicians or pharmacists who aren’t aware of the other medications the patient has been prescribed won’t know that they’re giving them a medication with the same ingredients.
Drug-Food Interactions
Drugs can also interact with food and beverages. Grapefruit juice, for example, is a common issue because it can reduce the efficacy of statin drugs used to treat high cholesterol.
Dietary supplements can interact with medications as well. Supplements aren’t regulated as drugs but as foods, which means they’re not as substantially tested as medications. This could lead patients to experience adverse effects if taken with prescription or over-the-counter medications.
Drug-Condition Interactions
Drug-condition interactions can occur if patients have an existing medical condition that makes certain drugs more likely to cause harm. A common example of this is if you have high blood pressure and take a nasal decongestant. Because nasal decongestants narrow blood vessels, they can make blood pressure issues worse.
Risks and Consequences of Drug Interactions
From making a drug less effective to causing severe reactions that land a patient in the hospital, over-the-counter and prescription drug interactions can have significant consequences for patients and medical facilities alike. Here are some examples.
Adverse Effects on Patient Health
Adverse drug interactions can be mild, moderate, severe, or lethal. They can occur right after the ingestion of a medication, supplement, or food. Alternatively, they might only appear after prolonged use.
When a substance enhances the effect of a drug, toxicity can occur, potentially resulting in dangerous drops in blood pressure, drowsiness, and a variety of other potentially harmful symptoms. Toxicity over a long period can even lead to kidney disease.
Increased Hospitalization Rates
Drug interactions affect hospitals because they increase hospitalization rates. This puts more stress on the healthcare system, leading to overcrowded facilities while simultaneously costing patients more money.
Impact on Treatment Efficacy
If OTC or prescription drug interactions decrease a medication’s effectiveness, patients’ overall health can also deteriorate because they’ll not be receiving the treatment they need. This leads to further hospitalizations and life-threatening results.
Importance of Patient Education on Drug Interactions
Educating patients on OTC and prescription drug interactions is essential for their safety and for the overall stability of the healthcare system.
Enhancing Patient Safety
When patients understand how their drugs function, they can participate in their own healthcare. It also ensures that they get the exact effects they need from their medications.
Improving Medication Adherence
When patients have adequate drug information and understand how the medications they take impact their overall health, they are more likely to stick to their treatment programs. Many of the safety processes for drug interactions rely on patients sharing their full medication lists. But if patients don’t fully understand the reason behind this, it can result in less accurate information.
Reducing Healthcare Costs
Patients who know about possible drug interactions can help prevent the kinds of adverse effects that require emergency care and hospitalization. When this happens, costs go down for both facilities and patients.
Methods for Educating Patients About Drug Interactions
Helping patients understand how their medications work and the possible drug interactions they could experience doesn’t have to be difficult. Nonetheless, clear communication is always required.
Clear Communication During Consultations
Healthcare professionals have to provide clear information when prescribing medications. With every new prescription, patients must receive instructions on how to administer the drug, what effects it can have, and what they shouldn’t take with it. It’s not enough to show them the drug labels and expect them to glean the information they need from those.
Providing Written Information and Resources
Patients often require more than verbal information. They may not remember instructions or could have questions after the consultation is over. By offering written information and resources they can depend on for guidance, patients can avoid confusion and added stress when dealing with new prescriptions.
It’s also important to offer information on medication expiration date guidelines. Patients need to understand the way that drugs’ effects can change once they’re past their expiration.
Utilizing Technology and Apps for Medication Management
Drug interaction checkers are very helpful for patients since they allow them to see how everything from foods and supplements to other prescription drugs can interact with their treatments. Along with these checkers are apps that help patients take their medications on time, which can also assist in preventing unwanted drug interactions.
Many medication management apps also offer information on appropriate dosage and help healthcare providers get a clear idea of whether the patient is adhering to their treatment. The variety of technology and app options ensures that patients of all ages can operate them.
Role of Pharmacists in Preventing Drug Interactions
Pharmacists can play a crucial role in helping patients avoid drug interactions, especially if you choose to rely on physician dispensing companies for in-office prescription filling.
Conducting Medication Reviews
Before dispensing medications, pharmacists can check that the prescribed drugs don’t interact with others that the patient takes. They can assess a medication’s appropriateness by considering the patient’s age, weight, size, diet, and more. Pharmacists will conduct a full review of everything the patient takes, including supplements and OTC medications.
Counseling Patients on Potential Interactions
Pharmacists can also warn patients on what not to take with the medications they’re on. They can consider setting up a schedule for them to follow that helps avoid interactions between drugs.
Collaborating With Physicians for Optimal Care
Collaborating with patients’ physicians means having more control over the drug regimen and helping patients improve treatment adherence. If patients transition to another physician, a pharmacist’s involvement can ensure there are no medication errors during the process.
How In-Office Dispensing Can Help Manage Drug Interactions
In-office dispensing offers the chance for pharmacists and physicians to interact, providing the right level of care for patients.
Direct Access to Medication Information
Having in-office physician dispensing services can help avoid OTC and prescription drug interactions because checking potential problems can be as simple as speaking with the pharmacist.
Personalized Patient Counseling
If patients have questions, they can receive answers from both experts before they even leave the office. Pharmacists can advise them on how to safely take their medications, especially if they’re on a regimen of more than one drug.
Personalized counseling has the potential to significantly reduce adverse drug interactions. This is because patients get to ask the questions they have before beginning treatment.
Ensuring Consistent Medication Management
Medication management can be interrupted if a patient changes doctors, but that’s not the case if there are pharmacists involved in the process. They can offer reliable medication management services.
Helping Patients Avoid Adverse Drug Interactions
Helping patients avoid drug interactions is vital for them and for the entire healthcare system.
Recap of Key Points
Drug interactions can lead to adverse effects and place an unnecessary burden on the healthcare industry. By working together, pharmacists and physicians can help prevent the problem.
Encouraging Ongoing Patient Education
Patient education can go a long way toward avoiding adverse drug interactions. By offering resources to patients, you can help them be more involved in their own care.
Another of the most effective strategies to help avoid adverse drug interactions is to choose in-office dispensing services. These can help pharmacists and physicians work together to keep patients safe and adhering to their treatments.
Each state has different in-office physician dispensing laws, so check these to see what your options are. Contact us at Proficient Rx to learn more about how doctor dispensing works.