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Medication therapy management can be extremely valuable to patients as it can reduce medication errors and improve patient safety. Here are five tips for improved MTM.
Pharmacists are medication experts. They have countless hours of education and experience. If you take prescription medication, non-prescription medication, herbals, vitamins, or any other supplement, you can benefit from your pharmacist’s expertise. You can do so through Medication Therapy Management (MTM).
MTM is a program offered by a pharmacist to help patients understand their health conditions and the medication prescribed to treat the conditions.
Services provided through medication therapy management include:
- Medication therapy reviews, where your pharmacist will collect your information and review it regularly.
- Pharmacotherapy consults to those with more complex medication needs.
- Disease and anticoagulant management support.
- Pharmacogenomics applications that use genetics in assigning medicine to a patient.
- Health, wellness, and community health services, like screenings and immunizations.
Finally, medication safety surveillance services are provided to prevent medication errors, which are preventable yet still very common in America.
Medication Therapy Management to Reduce Medication Errors
Each year, the Federal Drug Administration receives over 100,000 reports of medication errors either by doctors, nurses, or patients. Some common types of medication errors occur when prescribing, administering, and dispensing.
Other errors include taking the medication at the wrong time, receiving someone else’s drug, or receiving the wrong dose. Also, patients misuse their medication, and some do not follow instructions. A life-threatening error is negative drug interactions, when a patient is taking a medication that interacts negatively with another medication the patient is already taking.
Medication errors can happen the first time a patient takes a drug, or after many refills. This is just another reason why medication therapy management is such a crucial part of healthcare.
Because patient needs vary from one to the next, it’s essential to continually find ways to improve medication therapy management. Below are suggestions that can help patients reach their health goals safely.
1. Pharmacist-Patient Engagement
A medication therapy management program can’t work if patients and pharmacists can’t connect. Patients with questions need to get answers quickly. If the pharmacist is not available, allowing pharmacy students and technicians to answer some questions is okay. Some pharmacies provide emergency numbers for patients who have questions outside of pharmacy hours.
Medication knowledge held by a pharmacist is so valuable, and in some cases, can be life-saving. When a pharmacist can engage people in conversations about their medicines or over-the-counter supplements, they can better reach positive health outcomes.
Take every opportunity to connect with your pharmacist, whether with an in-depth consultation or a quick conversation, to learn more about the medication you are taking.
2. Education on Medications
Too often, a doctor prescribes medication, and the patient takes it or doesn’t. There is a gap between the prescription and consumption stages, one where the patient is educated about the drugs they will be taking.
To bridge the gap, pharmacists can provide updated information on every medication prescribed to a patient. Education should include why the drug is being prescribed, when to take it, how to store it, and what to do if a dose is missed.
Whether it should be taken with food or on an empty stomach, potential interactions and what to do if a reaction occurs should also be included in an education session with the pharmacist. The more a patient knows about and understands their prescription, the fewer errors will be made.
Medication errors affect the elderly more than any other group. But your pharmacists have ways of reducing this number.
3. Increase Protection for the Elderly
Pharmacists have access to The Beers List of Medications, a roster of medications that can harm older patients, specifically those over the age of 75. Doctors don’t consistently check this list when prescribing medications to patients. Knowing the pharmacist does this on their behalf makes patients feel confident when following medication schedules.
The Beers List also contains information on over-the-counter drugs that could cause adverse reactions in seniors. Because medications may change often and unexpectedly with elderly patients, pharmacists must keep the elderly and all other patients safe. This means staying up to date on potential side effects of medications too.
4. Investigate Symptoms as Side Effects
When a patient visits the doctor with new symptoms, the doctor doesn’t always consider whether the symptoms are related to the side effects of a drug previously prescribed. Some doctors think the answer is to prescribe additional medicines to treat the new symptoms.
The patient gets caught in a cycle with each new medicine prescribed, new side effects appear, and a new appointment is made with the doctor. Then, the process repeats. Before long, a person is taking multiple drugs to treat a misdiagnosis.
Pharmacists understand the potential side effects of both prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs. They can differentiate between side effects and new disorders and consult with physicians before starting a new medicine.
Over time, taking medication becomes overwhelming and leads to errors. Using the organization and reminder tools can help.
5. Suggest Medication Assistant Tools
It seems like every week; a new gadget hits the market promising to help manage medication schedules. From Smartphone Apps to portable machines, it is becoming easier for patients to stay on track with taking medicines correctly. Modern tools help patients avoid confusion about when to take their medications. They can avoid taking double doses or skipping doses, both of which can cause negative consequences.
Your pharmacists can engage patients in conversations about the advancements in tools to help them better manage their medicine schedules. They can provide instruction and answer questions right there on the spot.
Medication nonadherence is a significant cause of medication-related hospitalizations. If there’s an App or a piece of equipment to reduce harm and increase good health, pharmacists must let patients know.
In conclusion, it’s the patient-pharmacist relationship that makes medication therapy management successful. Finding ways to improve this relationship will lead to even greater outcomes. Follow-up contact is a great way to connect. It helps patients get answers to questions, and it allows pharmacists to determine whether patients are adhering to medication protocols and provide encouragement for ongoing medication management.
If you would like to improve your medication therapy management strategies, talk to the Pharmacists at Burt’s Pharmacy and Compounding Lab today!
