Providers increasingly have less time in the day with more patients to see and more administrative requirements to fulfill. Value-add programs that guide patients through medication adherence challenges can help both providers and patients.
More complex diseases tend to require more complex treatment plans, and on top of managing their symptoms and the psychological toll of a chronic disease diagnosis, patients must also learn the foreign language and machinations of the healthcare system in order to manage healthcare visits and costs, a new regimen, ensuing side effects and other obstacles. These are just several facets of the growing adherence crisis, which causes up to 30% of prescriptions to never get filled and between 20% and 80% of patients to stop filling their prescriptions within a year.1 Nonadherence, which occurs due to a great variety of clinical, behavioral, financial and emotional factors, is an issue that must be solved.
Patients will turn to their doctors and healthcare professionals more than anyone else to guide them. But as patient volume increases, practices and hospital systems become more and more time-constrained. Administrative tasks threaten to overwhelm those who should be most dedicated to patient care. Providers need to be able to devote their time to patients’ clinical care. But providers have less time than ever, less training in the growing complexities of the adherence crisis and too many patients with different issues and adherence challenges. Other industry partners who specialize in adherence must step in to shoulder this burden. That’s a key element of RxCrossroads by McKesson’s patient-facing adherence support programs: helping providers deliver clinical care and the best possible patient outcomes by augmenting their efforts with behavioral, clinical and emotional support for patients.
More than ever before, treatment plans must adapt to the new ways in which patients engage with their own healthcare. Direct patient care is increasingly provided in nontraditional settings, as treatments become more complex. That means pharmacists, nurses and case managers from service providers such as RxCrossroads all may be called upon to supplement physicians’ expertise.
At RxCrossroads, a cohesive, coordinated team guides patients through successful adherence to the treatment plan outlined by their provider. Nurse case managers with specialized therapeutic knowledge onboard patients to their therapy. Adherence coaches trained in behavioral coaching and motivational interviewing provide constructive feedback and continually optimize their care plans on an individual basis. Home health nurses make house visits to inspect the patient’s environment, provide hands-on training, in-home injection protocols and help integrate the treatment plan into their day-to-day life. That may include educating not only the patient on self-management and other therapy-related needs but also the family and other caregivers.
All of these services are customizable to the patient, provider and practice, and all are tasks many providers often no longer have time for. The more we can amplify providers’ efforts in caring for their patients, the more we empower providers to focus their energies where they are most needed — and the more we promote the best possible health outcomes for patients.
1. https://www.pm360online.com/the-gravity-of-nonadherence-and-ways-to-address-it/
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