Pharmacy owns medication adherence issue

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Of all the cells in the big organism known as health care, pharmacy is the right one to own the issue of medication adherence, as National Association of Chain Drug Stores president and CEO Steve Anderson pledged it would when commenting on a study published in the journal Health Affairs.

(THE NEWS: NACDS hails journal article's emphasis on pharmacy's role in medication adherence. For the full story, click here)

A physician treats a patient and writes a prescription, while a nurse supplements the physician’s care, but the pharmacist has an ability to help monitor patients’ drug treatment after they return home from their appointments, and the pharmacist can make sure they take their drugs the way they’re supposed to, while also ensuring that the therapies physicians prescribe are appropriate.

As healthcare professionals, pharmacists can do this through collaboration with other providers and thus play a significant role in patient care. But as the authors of the study wrote, pharmacists are often underused, so it’s up to them and the organizations that represent them to ensure that patients, payers and other providers know the widening variety of roles they can fulfill.