Pharmacy Perspectives on Medication Adherence
Insights from the Jones Healthcare Group Health & Wellness Advisory Network
A Finger on the Pulse
For over a century, we have made it a priority to listen to our pharmacy partners and patients, while tracking trends and developments in the healthcare sector. We continue to bring insights to our partners and “market-first” healthcare packaging solutions that put patient wellness and operational efficiency first.
In this report, you will find an overview of five medication adherence trends from a pharmacy perspective, created using valuable feedback from our Health & Wellness Advisory Network. This includes:
- The Topic – the subject discussed
- The Theme – the common feedback uncovered
- The Insight – a deeper look into the topic
A Global Challenge
Medication non-adherence is a widespread issue with significant impacts on health outcomes and healthcare systems around the world.
The Topic
Challenges Surrounding Medication Adherence
The Theme
62.5% note patient willingness & understanding as a key adherence challenge.
Other notable themes:
- Lack of communication with patients
- Difficult to measure & lack of data
The Insight
Setting the stage with a patient at the very beginning of their medication regimen is a major factor in driving and sustaining adherence. A best practice that can be leveraged is the mastery of the Motivational Interview.
- Patient-centred interaction
- Collaborative approach to explore the patient’s ability to commit to a behavioural change
- Tone of acceptance and compassion
The Topic
The hardest parts about trying to drive better medication adherence at the pharmacy level
The Theme
75% say technology must support, not replace interaction.
Other Notable Themes
- Balancing “mass production” & “customized patient solutions”
- Lack of dedicated effort to onboard patients to adherence packaging
The Insight
Virtual healthcare has recently gained significant momentum and has carved out its own space. The need to continually engage with patients in a safe and productive way outside of the traditional approach is imperative. Technology can augment direct interation and maintain a personalized and meaningful experience by strengthening the engagement with patients.
An emerging innovative solution being developed by Jones Healthcare Group is our CpaX™ connected packaging, which helps patients stay on track with their medications, and enables efficient and effective communication with the pharmacy team.
The technology nurtures proactive dialogue instead of replacing pharmacist-patient interactions.
Key Benefits of CpaX™
- Inform and educate
- Remind, monitor & motivate
- Obtain feedback
- Refill & dispose
The Topic
The most important things you and your team can do to help ‘move the needle’
The Theme
50% say it’s important to make adherence top of mind for pharmacy teams.
Other Notable Themes
- Introduce adherence packaging
- Reduce labour with central fill or automation
- Communicate and problem solve
- Support proactively (automated triggers, monitoring)
The Insight
Our Venalink team in Spain has developed a best-practice training and coordination program that enables pharmacy teams to skillfully determine the characteristics of patients who can benefit the most from adherence packaging solutions.
These sessions are led by our resident Pharm.D. and Manager of Training & Innovation, Héctor R. Loscertales at Venalink Spain.
The Topic
The most time-consuming steps to improve medication adherence
The Theme
37.5% say packaging & re-packaging are the most time-consuming steps.
Other Notable Themes
- High touch/attention to patients
- Filling prescriptions
- Determining patients who need consultation/ attention/intervention
The Insight
The obvious but not always feasible solution is installing automation technology. So what else can drive efficiencies?
Analyzing pharmacy layouts and creating unique stations or zone areas can help optimize workflow and streamline prescription preparation. This allows pharmacies to dispense medications faster and more efficiently, enhancing both the pharmacist and the patient experience.
Our Venalink team in the UK shared that a pharmacy created an Interacting Zone located at the front of the pharmacy, leveraging a series of consultation rooms. This zone leads into a Preparation Zone, which is ideally positioned beside the Storage Zone.
On a smaller scale, our team in Spain worked with a pharmacy to create optimized repackaging stations. The station has all the medications you need, the necessary tools, as well as packaging readily available in one place to minimize additional trips to storage.
The Topic
The actions necessary to improve medication adherence in your pharmacy
The Theme
37.5% say it would be ideal to separate functions by skill.
Other Notable Themes
- Increase engagement with patients
- Introduce automation or central fill
- Schedule appointments and medication reviews to understand the patient and identify potential issues early
The Insight
The role of a pharmacist is evolving, and patients’ needs are forever changing. Therefore, teams need to collaboratively discuss their roles to separate the administrative, technical and therapeutic functions.
This could mean designating more responsibility to support staff where possible, and using the “newly found” time to provide listening, education and support for patients.
Creativity can also be part of the solution. For example, we worked with a specialty pharmacy in the US that created a “Care Coordinator” function focusing on inbound and outbound patient calls, refill reminder calls, scheduling patient consultations, among other coordination activities.
Another pharmacy created a dedicated “Compliance Associate,” who concentrates on supporting patients and the pharmacy with adherence packaging initiatives and tasks.
Jones will be launching a series of new products to improve pharmacy workflow by reducing the time required to fill adherence cards.
Continue the Conversation
If you’re interested in learning more about the insights in this report, or you would like to share your thoughts and feedback, get in touch with us at: insights@joneshealthcaregroup.com
To read more about Jones Healthcare Group’s pharmacy and medication adherence packaging solutions, download the PDF version.
