Mark your calendars, because Health Care Risk Management Week (HCRMW) is coming next week (June 15-19). HCRMW is an annual event held the third week of June, where anyone and everyone is encouraged to celebrate the leadership that healthcare risk management professionals provide organizations and communities to deliver safe and trusted healthcare. Healthcare risk managers can come from a variety of professions and fulfill many duties, such as communicating with patient families, interacting with physicians and clinical staff, educating medical staff and senior leadership, and helping to put processes in place to reduce the risk of adverse events9[1]. And who are our favorite healthcare risk managers? Community pharmacists, of course!
Celebrating the role of the pharmacist
We talk a lot about the critical role community pharmacists play in maintaining the health of our country. Health Care Risk Management Week is yet another opportunity to show our appreciation for the tremendous sacrifice and hard work pharmacists and pharmacy staff have made to keep communities safe during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since the onset of the coronavirus, patients have been subject to many challenges, including barriers to proper medication adherence.
A familiar challenge, medication nonadherence leads to poor outcomes, more doctor visits, hospital readmissions, and other potentially serious safety issues. This is particularly true among patients with chronic conditions such as heart disease, COPD, and hypertension. Nonadherence can lead to an exacerbation of underlying health conditions, which in turn can cause disease progression. This scenario frequently subjects patients to a continuous loop of doctor visits, or worse, hospital readmissions. Additionally, nonadherence places a strain on the nation’s healthcare systems, which are often overworked, and in many communities, currently at capacity.
Here lies an opportunity for the community pharmacist. By communicating the importance of taking and refilling their medications as prescribed, community pharmacists play an integral role as healthcare risk managers, particularly during the COVID-19 crisis. When it comes to effectively improving adherence, community pharmacies must have the right solutions in place, such as a comprehensive medication synchronization (med sync) program.
Med sync and PrescribeWellness
Implementing an effective med sync program can be a game-changer for community pharmacies. Studies have shown that med sync not only improves adherence of nonadherent patients by 3%, but it also improves the proportion of days covered (PDC) of already adherent patients by the same margin!
Through the PrescribeWellness solution, community pharmacists can implement, and sustain, a successful med sync program to ensure an adherent and engaged patient population. Pharmacists can connect with their patients through the med sync program to lessen risks associated with adverse events. Capabilities such as PrescribeWellness’ customizable communications promote Velcro between patient and pharmacy, enabling additional revenue opportunities and better outcomes.
As the nation’s most accessible healthcare provider, pharmacists are uniquely positioned to serve as healthcare risk managers for the patients they serve. If you are interested in learning more about how PrescribeWellness can help you provide better health to your community through comprehensive med sync implementation and management, and beyond, please contact us today.
[1] https://www.memorialhealthcare.org/celebrating-health-care-risk-management-week/
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