Medication Therapy Management
Medication Therapy Management bridges the gaps between patients, their physicians, and their drug therapies with the pharmacist taking the lead in educating patients and caregivers while developing trusting relationships with physicians.
A Clinical Pharmacist reviews all the medications a patient is taking, provides patient-education materials, coordinates care among a patient’s providers, and reviews the necessary test results to affirm that medications are appropriate, accurate, and eradicate errors and duplicate therapies.
Article discussing Medication Therapy Management from the CDC
UNDERSTAND HOW MEDICATIONS WORK WITHIN THE BODY
- Patient & caregiver education
PREVENT UNWANTED SIDE EFFECTS
- Drug-Drug Interactions
- Drug-Lifestyle interactions
RECOGNIZE AND PREVENT DUPLICATE THERAPIES
- Pharmacist communicates with all patients’ healthcare providers to prevent over medicating
FIND COST EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES
- Save money by switching to effective generic alternatives from costly name brand medications
A GROWING PROBLEM
ACCORDING TO THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Up to 40% of people 65 & older take five or more prescription drugs.
The complex management of this “polypharmacy” increases the risk of interactions and overdoses
OLDER ADULTS RUN A PARTICULARLY HIGH RISK FOR ADVERSE DRUG EFFECTS
In part because age-related physiological changes and multiple health problems make them vulnerable to such reactions.
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH
has shown that medication-related adverse events cause up to 30% of all hospital admissions in older patients
THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)
states that older adults are seven times more likely to experience unintentional drug overdoses and other adverse drug events, and has called for increased attention to medication management for senior patients!
BETTER PHARMACY IS THE SOLUTION
Pharmacists are a highly knowledgeable & extremely underutilized asset in healthcare teams, and allowing them a more active role is key to providing safer and more effective healthcare for our senior loved ones.
At Somerset Specialty and LTC Pharmacy we accomplish this with comprehensive Medication Therapy Management (MTM)